Architectural Acoustics Basics
Acoustics is the science concerned with sound. It is concerned with so many different aspects of sound.
Let us first try to understand what is meant by this word Acoustics. Acoustics is the science concerned with sound. It is concerned with so many different aspects of sound. It is concerned with production of sound, it is concerned with control of sound, it is concerned with transmission of sound, it is concerned with reception of sound and it is also concerned with effects of sound. So this is a science which deals with study of so many different aspects of sound.
The word “acoustics” is derived from the Greek word “akoustikos” meaning ‘of hearing’ or ‘for hearing’, that is ‘ready to hear’. From “akoustikos” two words are derived which are “akoustos” meaning ‘heard’ or ‘audible’ and the other word “akouo”, which is used as a verb meaning ‘ I hear’. The Latin synonym is “sonic”. ‘Sonics’ is a term now used as synonym for ‘acoustics’. In modern world, ‘sonics’ is a branch of acoustics.
The nature has provided to us five senses – vision, Hearing, Smell, Taste and Touch. From amongst these, Vision is the most important and hearing comes next. This sense of hearing enables us to understand sound incidents happening around us. From the time we are born we hear sound incidents happening around us. We hear them first, and as we hear; our brain decodes many important aspects about these sound incidents. Various aspects about the sounds incidents heard are then recorded in our brain permanently. All this information stored in brain is then used to understand the sound incident, which is then used as required to respond to similar sound incidents happening later. This process goes on from the time we are born till we finally die. Thus hearing is one of the most important and distinctive characteristic of human development and culture. To come back to the original Greek word “akoustikos” meaning ‘of hearing’ or ‘for hearing’, that is ‘ready to hear’ let us proceed further. Hearing is one of the most crucial means of survival in the animal world.
Hearing is one of the most crucial means of survival in the animal world. Response to what is heard becomes the resultant. Thus amongst all animals, Speech is one of the most distinctive characteristics of human development. It started with making different sounds to communicate feelings, instructions, expressions, directions etc. And later this developed into speech, alphabets, words, sentences, and comprehensive communication through language.
For the human race, music has been an integral part of our lives since earliest civilizations. Music has been used as an important form of communication throughout the ages. Music has been used as a way to stimulate the mind, and Music has been used for pure entertainment value also. Music and speech have become a very very vital component to our society for communication. And therefore, it is not surprising to know that the humans are working for millions of years to create environment more conducive to musical performances and communication through speech.
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