Acoustics - Basic Physics, Theory and Methods - P. Filippi, et al., (Elsevier, 1999) WW.pdf

Foreword
At the invitation of the authors, it is my privilege to contribute a Foreword to
this book. It is an English-language version of the French-language Acoustique
G~n~rale, published in 1994 (which I reviewed in JSV 186(5)), translated into
English and revised by the authors to make its contents more accessible to English
speakers.
Its contents are what is important. No other English-language book on acoustics
contains as much concise information, both physically and mathematically
rigorous, on the basic physical and theoretical concepts of acoustics and the
methods of obtaining solutions applicable to practical problems of the mathema-
tical problems of acoustics.
Although acoustics is presented in the book as a collection of mathematical
problems and how to solve them, the physical bases of these problems are initially
spelled out in generality in the first chapter, in the context of continuum mechanics
(which is not done in any other books on acoustics). In the subsequent seven
chapters, both mathematically rigorous and approximate methods of solving the
acoustical equations thus described are presented, including both analytical and
numerical methods. The presentation throughout is very concise, and so the book is
like a diamond mine for those willing to dig deep enough to find diamonds which
encapsulate the problems they wish to solve. Since the authors, however, have all
been brought up in the French tradition of 'rational mechanics', rather than the
'empirical mechanics' tradition favoured among most English speakers, I have to
conclude by saying that 'English-speakers' must be prepared to dig deep into the
book if they want to find their diamonds. If they do so, I am sure that they will be
duly rewarded.
. Doak
Preface
These lecture notes were first written in French, while the authors were teaching
Acoustics at the University of Aix-Marseille, France. They correspond to a