Understanding Acoustics

In this book, the author explains the unique physics-based “west-coast” UCLA approach and its applications to acoustics. The text is meant to serve as a foundation for graduate programs in Acoustics, or for undergraduate seniors who are interested in studying Acoustics. There are a total of fifteen chapters in this book that can all be downloaded individually. As of today, approximately 245,000 instances of chapter downloads have been recorded by Springer.

There is also a complete Solution Manual for the end-of-chapter problems that is available for qualified instructors at academic institutions on the Springer web site or by request to the author.

Paul S. Veneklasen Research Foundation funded this very first open source book publication in the acoustical field, written by Steven L. Garrett, a professor at Penn State. In 2013 – 14, Steve and a Foundation board member (John) met on the outskirts of a conference to discuss the possibility of writing a book based on the teachings of the faculties at UCLA, Steve’s and John’s alma mater. John very quickly committed to make this happen with a goal to make this book open source. We are honored to present this work to you and everyone else, for free, so you could learn from Steve as your grow your career in acoustics.