Dr. Kathryn Dimiduk, Spring 2004
 

Course Objectives:  This class is designed to provide an understanding of the physical acoustics concepts underlying sound  production, propagation, and detection, music and  musical instruments, the human voice and hearing, and acoustics of the environment.  Topics will include: general properties of sound, applications to musical instruments, the human ear, the human voice, room acoustics, electronic reproduction and synthesis of sound, harmonics, tone quality, pitch and musical scales.
 
Course Approach:  This class will focus on the physical concepts of musical acoustics. Lectures, lecture demonstrations, computer simulations, guest speakers (instrumentalists), small group hands-on activities exploring various concepts, and class discussions will all be used to enhance student understanding of and interest in the material.  Class time will focus on concepts and their understanding rather than a repeating of the textbook.  It is expected that students will read and study the textbook for additional information.  Homework questions will help guide the student in studying the material.

Instructor:  Dr. Kathryn Dimiduk
Phone:  277-4084 (or 277-2616 for physics dept. secretary)
E-mail:  dimiduk@unm.edu
Office:   Room 8, Physics and Astronomy Bldg, (NE corner of Lomas and Yale)
Fax:  The department fax number is 277-1520.  You may use this to turn in homework if you cannot make it to campus to turn in an assignment.  Be sure to keep a copy of your assignment in case the fax has a problem, and also include a cover page Attn: Dr. Dimiduk, Physics 108 Homework.

Office Hours:  (Check web page for updates) (* not first week of classes)
 Monday  11:00-12:00 Regener 109 *
 Tuesday  10:00 - 10:45 Regener  109 *
1:00-2:00 Physics Dept. (NE corner of Lomas and Yale) Rm 8 *
Wednesday  9:00 - 10:00 Algebra Desk, 2nd floor Dane Smith Hall, North hall *
 Thursday  12:30 - 1:30  Regener 109
Friday 2-2:30 (except Feb. 6, Feb 20, Mar 12, Apr 16) Reg. 109
 
Website: http://panda.unm.edu/Courses/Dimiduk/index.html

Ereserves: http://ereserves.unm.edu/  class will be Physics 108 instructor Dimiduk, password: acoustics    This is a place that homework answers and practice tests may be posted.  Also look here for assignments if you missed class or lost your page.  The library can easily scan figures so  it will be used more than the class web page.

Grader:  Andreas Velten

Prerequisites:  No university prerequisites are required. Although the class is nonmathematical where possible, math skills as required for admission to the university are assumed and this level of math will be used in the homework and on exams.  This includes reading graphs, and early algebra skills.  Logarithms will be covered in class as needed for decibels.  Calculators will be encouraged.  Group work in class will be used to refresh and augment the necessary skills.  If you have concerns please talk to the instructor.  Office hours and fellow students are a good place to get help if needed.

Class Meetings:  Tuesday and Thursday   11:00 - 12:15.  Attendance is expected at all classes.  Tests will cover material from class that may not be in the textbook as well as material from the textbook and homework.

Textbook:  Required:  Musical Acoustics, 3rd ed., by Donald Hall, Brooks/Cole Publishing, Pacific Grove, CA, ?2002
Optional:
The Physics of Sound, 2nd ed., by Richard E. Berg and David  G. Stork,Prentic Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, ? 1995.
The Science of Sound, 2nd ed., Thomas D. Rossing, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massassachusetts, ?1990.
Both of the optional books are resources for more in depth information on topics covered in the course. I have deliberately chosen the required book for readability and a reasonable depth across all the topics.   You may find that you want more information on a topic(s) that is of particular interest to you. These optional books have considerably more detail and are a good place to find additional information.

Homework:  There will be approximately 11 homework assignments.  Generally they will consist of questions I have written or exercises from the book.  They will be designed  to help you focus on the important concepts and to give you practice working with the ideas, concepts and numbers in the chapters.

 Homework will be due on the assigned date by 4:30 PM.  It may be handed in during class, or taken to the grader's mailbox in the Physics and Astronomy Building, (NE corner of Lomas and Yale).  Late assignments will be accepted at the next lecture, but will be penalized 25% of the available points.  After that, assignments will not be accepted, except with special permission, which will only rarely be granted and only for very good reasons beyond the student's control.  In computing the homework grade, the lowest homework grade will be dropped and the remaining homework grades averaged.

Exam Schedule:   tentative schedule,  any changes will be announced in class
 Prelim 1 February 17 in class      Review  TBA
 Prelim 2 March 11  in class          Review  TBA
 Prelim 3 April   22  in class          Review  TBA
 Final  May 11 10:00-12:00

 Grading:   Your grade will be computed as shown below.

 Homework 20%
 Prelim 1 20%
 Prelim 2 20%
 Prelim 3 20%
 Final   20%

Last week of class:  Homework will be due during the last week of class to allow students time to work on an assignment covering material from the second to last week of class.  Class time the last week of class on Tuesday may be used for any of the following activities: student presentations (if any students elected to do these), guest speakers or instrumentalists, or new material if guest speakers or instrumentalists  came earlier in the semester pushing other material back till this Tuesday, and questions on the last homework.  While Thursday will be reserved for ICES and review it is my expectation that students are responsible for reviewing the material covered in the class and that this will primarily be the student's responsibility outside of class.  Review in class will not attempt to cover everything that could be on the final.  Rather it will attempt to help the students organize the material they need to review.  Synthesis of the material and ideas is an important part of the learning in a college class and is an important skill for students to learn.

Optional Assignment:  This assignment may be used to replace one of the units used in computing your grade.  You may only replace one unit.  Choose one of the options below.  In each case, discuss your plan with the instructor before you start to insure that it is appropriate in scope and depth.  In previous years students have done many excellent projects and for many this was a good way to improve your grade.  Due to the new rules for the last week of the semester this optional assignment must now be due at the end of the second to last week of classes.  The optional assignment is due on April 29.  However I do not have a problem with calling this a project and accepting it during the last week of classes with no penalty at the request of individual students.  This assignment is intended for the benefit of students and students in this class come from many backgrounds and have many different schedules and expectations for their various majors.  As such if you have all your concerts in the last two weeks of class or the speech and hearing workshop late in the semester, or other major projects, I will accept this assignment as late as the final exam if you let me know in advance that you need to do it this way and if you don't complain that I let you do this.

 Option A:  a 3-5 page typed report on a 2-4 hands-on projects from the book that you have carried out that wasn't done in class, (or one of your own projects that the instructor has approved).  This cannot be something you did for the lab class, unless it is extended well beyond the regular lab work.  Whether you need 2, 3 or 4 projects depends on how involved each project is.  Discuss this with the instructor in advance.
 Option B:  a 10-15 minute oral presentation of A above.  Depending on the topic this will likely be scheduled as an individual presentation to the instructor.
Option C:  a 4-6 page typed report on a some aspect of musical acoustics of interest to you. This should be based on at least 4 sources of information (at least two sources beyond the textbook and class), and should go beyond information included in the textbook.  This can be related to your particular field of study, but must specifically contain physics or acoustics concepts.  This option does not require but may include a hands-on component.
  Option D:  a 10-15 minute oral presentation on some aspect of musical acoustics of interest to you. This should be based on at least 4 sources of information (at least two sources beyond the textbook and class), should include some kind of interesting demonstration, and should go beyond information included in the textbook.  This can be related to your particular field of study, but must specifically contain physics or acoustics concepts.   Discuss well in advance with the instructor to schedule a time that is appropriate for your topic.  Ideally this would be presented to the whole class.  Past years have included instrument acoustic presentations and demonstrations, presentations on microphones, acoustics labs, room acoustics and other topics of interest to the students and the class.

Letter grades:  Letter grades will be assigned based on the following scale (The instructor reserves the right to grade more leniently than this scale, if appropriate.  This scale represents the lowest grade you will earn based on your final class average.)

A+ ? 98  A  94.0 - 97.9  A- 90.0 - 93.9
B+ 88.0 - 89.9 B 84.0 - 87.9  B- 80.0 - 83.9
C+ 78.0 - 79.9 C 74.0 - 77.9  C- 70.0 - 73.9
D+ 68.0 - 69.9 D 64.0 - 67.9  D- 60.0 - 63.9
F less than 60.0