The science of acoustics made great strides in the 20th century, during
which the first three editions of this book appeared. This fourth edition, however, points the reader to new horizons of the 21st century. A
newly appreciated concept of distortion of sound in the medium itself
(Chap. 25), a program for acoustic measurements (Chap. 26), and the
optimization of placement of loudspeakers and listener (Chap. 27), all
based on the home computer, point forward to amazing developments
in acoustics yet to come.
As in the previous three editions, this fourth edition balances treatment of the fundamentals of acoustics with the general application of
fundamentals to practical problems.