Chapter 3
Sound and psychoacoustics
In this chapter the characteristics of sound as an airborne vibration and as a human sensation are tied together. The direction-sensing ability of the ear is not considered here as it will be treated in detail in Chapter 7.
3.1 What is sound?
There is a well-known philosophical riddle which goes ‘If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?’ This question can have a number of answers depending on the plane one chooses to consider. I believe that to understand what sound really is requires us to interpret this on many planes.
Physics can tell us the mechanism by which disturbances propagate through the air and if this is our definition of sound, then the falling tree needs ...
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