TY - BOOK
TI - The Theory of Sound
AU - Rayleigh, J
AB - In the work, of which the present volume is an instalment, my endeavour has been to lay before the reader a connected exposition of the theory of sound, which should include the more important advances made in modern times by Mathematicians and Physicists. The importance of the object which I have had in view will not, I think, be disputed by those competent to judge. At the present time many of the most valuable contributions to science are to be found only in scattered periodicals and transactions of societies, published in various parts of the world and in several languages, and are often practically inaccessible to those who do not happen to live in the neighbourhood of large public libraries. In such a state of things the mechanical impediments to study entail an amount of unremunerative labour and consequent hindrance to the advancement of science which it would be difficult to overestimate.Since the well-known Article on Sound in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, by Sir John Herschel (1845), no complete work has been published in which the subject is treated mathematically. By the premature death of Prof. Donkin, the scientific world was deprived of one whose mathematical attainments in combination with a practical knowledge of music qualifies him in a special manner to write on Sound. The first part of his Acoustics (1870), though little more than a fragment, is sufficient to shew that my labours would have been unnecessary had Prof. Donkin lived to complete his work.In the choice of topics to be dealt with in a work on Sound, I have for the most part followed the example of my predecessors. To a great extent the theory of Sound, as commonly understood, covers the same ground as the theory of Vibrations in general; but, unless some limitation were admitted, the consideration of such subjects as the Tides, not to speak of Optics, would have to be included. As a general rule we shall confine ourselves to those classes of vibrations for which our ears afford a ready made and wonderfully sensitive instrument of investigation. Without ears we should hardly care much more about vibrations than without eyes we should care about light.The present volume includes chapters on the vibrations of systems in general, in which, I hope, will be recognised as some novelty of treatment and results, followed by a more detailed consideration of special systems, such as stretching string, bars, membranes, and plates. The second volume, of which a considerable portion is already written, will commence with aerial vibrations.
CY - London, UK
DA - 1877/04//
PY - 1877
SP - 370
PB - Macmillan and co.
UR - https://archive.org/details/theorysound06raylgoog
LA - English
KW - Noise
ER -