Physics and Music PDF Download

Author: Harvey E. White
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486794008
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Comprehensive and accessible, this foundational text surveys general principles of sound, musical scales, characteristics of instruments, mechanical and electronic recording devices, and many other topics. More than 300 illustrations plus questions, problems, and projects.

Author: Harry F. Olson
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486317021
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
This extraordinarily comprehensive text, requiring no special background, discusses the nature of sound waves, musical instruments, musical notation, acoustic materials, elements of sound reproduction systems, and electronic music. Includes 376 figures.

Author: Kinko Tsuji
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030686760
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
This book explores the fascinating and intimate relationship between music and physics. Over millennia, the playing of, and listening to music have stimulated creativity and curiosity in people all around the globe. Beginning with the basics, the authors first address the tonal systems of European-type music, comparing them with those of other, distant cultures. They analyze the physical principles of common musical instruments with emphasis on sound creation and particularly charisma. Modern research on the psychology of musical perception – the field known as psychoacoustics – is also described. The sound of orchestras in concert halls is discussed, and its psychoacoustic effects are explained. Finally, the authors touch upon the role of music for our mind and society. Throughout the book, interesting stories and anecdotes give insights into the musical activities of physicists and their interaction with composers and musicians.

Author: Leon Gunther
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781461405573
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
The Physics of Music and Color deals with two subjects, music and color - sound and light in the physically objective sense - in a single volume. The basic underlying physical principles of the two subjects overlap greatly: both music and color are manifestations of wave phenomena, and commonalities exist as to the production, transmission, and detection of sound and light. This book aids readers in studying both subjects, which involve nearly the entire gamut of the fundamental laws of classical as well as modern physics. Where traditional introductory physics and courses are styled so that the basic principles are introduced first and are then applied wherever possible, this book is based on a motivational approach: it introduces a subject by demonstrating a set of related phenomena, challenging readers by calling for a physical basis for what is observed. The Physics of Music and Color is written at level suitable for college students without any scientific background, requiring only simple algebra and a passing familiarity with trigonometry. It contains numerous problems at the end of each chapter that help the reader to fully grasp the subject.

Author: Stephon Alexander
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465098509
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected them by straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane put physics and geometry at the core of his music. Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander follows suit, using jazz to answer physics' most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe. Following the great minds that first drew the links between music and physics-a list including Pythagoras, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and Rakim-The Jazz of Physics reveals that the ancient poetic idea of the Music of the Spheres," taken seriously, clarifies confounding issues in physics. The Jazz of Physics will fascinate and inspire anyone interested in the mysteries of our universe, music, and life itself.

Author: Leon Gunther
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030192199
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
This undergraduate textbook aids readers in studying music and color, which involve nearly the entire gamut of the fundamental laws of classical as well as atomic physics. The objective bases for these two subjects are, respectively, sound and light. Their corresponding underlying physical principles overlap greatly: Both music and color are manifestations of wave phenomena. As a result, commonalities exist as to the production, transmission, and detection of sound and light. Whereas traditional introductory physics textbooks are styled so that the basic principles are introduced first and are then applied, this book is based on a motivational approach: It introduces a subject with a set of related phenomena, challenging readers by calling for a physical basis for what is observed. A novel topic in the first edition and this second edition is a non-mathematical study of electric and magnetic fields and how they provide the basis for the propagation of electromagnetic waves, of light in particular. The book provides details for the calculation of color coordinates and luminosity from the spectral intensity of a beam of light as well as the relationship between these coordinates and the color coordinates of a color monitor. The second edition contains corrections to the first edition, the addition of more than ten new topics, new color figures, as well as more than forty new sample problems and end-of-chapter problems. The most notable additional topics are: the identification of two distinct spectral intensities and how they are related, beats in the sound from a Tibetan bell, AM and FM radio, the spectrogram, the short-time Fourier transform and its relation to the perception of a changing pitch, a detailed analysis of the transmittance of polarized light by a Polaroid sheet, brightness and luminosity, and the mysterious behavior of the photon. The Physics of Music and Color is written at a level suitable for college students without any scientific background, requiring only simple algebra and a passing familiarity with trigonometry. The numerous problems at the end of each chapter help the reader to fully grasp the subject.

Author: Neville H. Fletcher
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387216030
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 763

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Book Description
While the history of musical instruments is nearly as old as civilisation itself, the science of acoustics is quite recent. By understanding the physical basis of how instruments are used to make music, one hopes ultimately to be able to give physical criteria to distinguish a fine instrument from a mediocre one. At that point science may be able to come to the aid of art in improving the design and performance of musical instruments. As yet, many of the subtleties in musical sounds of which instrument makers and musicians are aware remain beyond the reach of modern acoustic measurements. This book describes the results of such acoustical investigations - fascinating intellectual and practical exercises. Addressed to readers with a reasonable grasp of physics who are not put off by a little mathematics, this book discusses most of the traditional instruments currently in use in Western music. A guide for all who have an interest in music and how it is produced, as well as serving as a comprehensive reference for those undertaking research in the field.

Author: David Sulzer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780231193788
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This book offers a lively exploration of the mathematics, physics, and neuroscience that underlie music. Written for musicians and music lovers with any level of science and math proficiency, including none, Music, Math, and Mind demystifies how music works while testifying to its beauty and wonder.

Author: Juan G. Roederer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461599814
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Viii book we shall refer a great deal to the discipline of psycho physics, which in a broad sense tries to establish in a quan titative form the causal relationship between the "physical" input from our senses and the psychological sensations and physiological reactions evoked in our mind and body, re spectively. Actually, we shall try to weave a rather close mesh between physics and psychophysics-or, more pre cisely, psychoacoustics. After all, they appear naturally interwoven in music itself: not only pitch, loudness and timbre are a product of physical and psychoacoustical proc esses, but so are the sensations related to consonance and dissonance, tonic dominance, trills and ornamentation, vibrato, phrasing, beats, tone attack, duration and decay, rhythm, and so on. Many books on physics of music or musical acoustics are readily available. An up-to-date text is the treatise of John Backus (1969). No book on psychoacoustics is available at the elementary level, though. Several review articles on pertinent topics can be found in Tobias (1970) and in Plomp and Smoorenburg (1970). A comprehensive discussion is given in Flanagan's book on speech (1972). And, of course, there is the classical treatise of von Bekesy (1960). A com prehensive up-to-date analysis of general brain processes can be found in Sommerhoff (1974); musical psychology is discussed in classical terms in Lundin (1967).

Author: Ian Johnston
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439894671
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Most books concerned with physics and music take an approach that puts physical theory before application. Consequently, these works tend to dampen aesthetic fascination with preludes burdened by an overabundance of algebraic formulae. In Measured Tones: The Interplay of Physics and Music Third Edition, Ian Johnston a professor of astrophysics and a connoisseur of music, offers an informal historical approach that shows the evolution of both theory and application at the intersection of physics and music. Exceptionally accessible, insightful, and now updated to consider modern technology and recent advances, the new edition of this critically acclaimed and bestselling classic — Features a greater examination of psycho-acoustics and its role in the design of MP3s Includes expanded information on the gamelan and other Asian percussion instruments Introduces detailed discussions of binary notation, digitization, and electronic manipulation of music We believe that order exists, and we look for it. In that respect the aims of science and of music are identical—the desire to find harmony. And surely, without that very human desire, science would be a cold and sterile undertaking. With myriad illustrations and historical anecdotes, this volume will delight those student required to approach this topic from either a physics and music concentration, as well as anyone who is fascinated with concepts of harmony expressed in nature, as well as in the instruments and composition of human expression’s purest form. A complementary website provides sound files, further reading, and instructional support.