User:Adrian de Physics/sandbox

This is a working table developed to help plan the handling of the subfields of acoustics in the main article on acoustics that is about to be revised. Other tables and discussions follow. Adrian Pollock (talk) 04:27, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

This table edition 68.83.145.51 (talk) 05:46, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

This is a working copy from the existing main article on acoustics: The following are the main sub-disciplines of acoustics: END OF WORKING COPY FROM MAIN ARTICLE
 * Acoustical measurements and instrumentation
 * Acoustic signal processing
 * Aeroacoustics: study of aerodynamic sound, generated when a fluid flow interacts with a solid surface or with another flow. It has particular application to aeronautics, examples being the study of sound made by flying jets and the physics of shock waves (sonic booms).
 * Architectural acoustics: study of sound waves distribution in variously shaped enclosed or partly enclosed spaces with effects of sound waves on objects of different shapes which are in their way. Mostly concentrated on how sound and buildings interact, including the behavior of sound in concert halls and auditoriums but also in office buildings, factories and homes.
 * Bioacoustics: study of the use of sound by animals such as whales, dolphins, bats etc.
 * Biomedical acoustics: study of the use of sound in medicine, for example the use of ultrasound for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
 * Biomedical acoustics: study of the sound propagation in the human environment, noise health effects and noise mitigation analysis.
 * Musical acoustics: study of the physics of musical instruments.
 * Nonlinear Acoustics: study of high amplitude waves and related phenomena, such as parametric arrays and sonic booms.
 * Psychoacoustics: study of subjective reaction of living beings to sound, hearing, perception, and localization.
 * Physiological acoustics: study of the mechanical, electrical and biochemical function of hearing in living organisms.
 * Physical acoustics: study of the propagation of acoustic waves and of the detailed interaction of sound with materials and fluids including, for example, sonoluminescence (the emission of light by bubbles in a liquid excited by sound) and thermoacoustics (the interaction of sound and heat).
 * Speech communication: study of how speech is produced, the analysis of speech signals and the properties of speech transmission, storage, recognition and enhancement.
 * Structural acoustics and vibration: study of how sound and mechanical structures interact; for example, the transmission of sound through walls and the radiation of sound from vehicle panels.
 * Transduction: study of how sound is generated and measured by loudspeakers, microphones, sonar projectors, hydrophones, ultrasonic transducers and sensors.
 * Ultrasonics: study of high frequency sound, beyond the range of human hearing.
 * Underwater acoustics: study of the propagation of sound in water.

NOTE: the listed categories in the Wikipedia article are (still) an almost exact match to the PACS categories. The PACS reference is quite comprehensive and very valuable for us. There are just s few minor alterations to titles, and the addition of "biomedical acoustics", an anomalously small field that can be easily merged out. The ASA committee categories are gratifyingly similar to these numbered publication-oriented categories. We have to watch out for "physical acoustics", a much used phrase but one which PACS apparently avoided, dividing its traditional content among general linear, non linear, etc. etc. 68.83.145.51 (talk) 05:46, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Joe, I've edited your table to contain the PACS categories and only the PACS categories. I think this makes a good overview. As an added bonus, here's a use for the phrase "physical acoustics" that was a problem before. It becomes a column head along with "biological acoustics" and "acoustical engineering" (? engineering acoustics).

I've also put into a table, for our planning convenience, the other categories you had named and also several other Wikipedia articles I have been coming across on acoustics subjects. How about this for a groundrule for the two of us to aim to implement: if there's a Wikipedia article on it and if it's part of acoustics, let's link to it from the main article. Who knows this may be a regular Wiki guideline anyway. We will need several different lists and/or tables within our main article, not just one, to get this done.

Thus our article offers (1) a birds-eye taxonomic overview, (2) a convenient reference point to ALL Wikipedia articles in the acoustics field (or perhaps we should draw the line somewhere, not list every tiny article on every specialized topic), (3) fundamentals and (4) history.

What say you ? Adrian Pollock (talk) 04:27, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Joe, I've posted the other categories you gave to the table below, and I am also starting to add to this table any other acoustical articles I come across in Wikipedia. There could be lots more added to this I don't doubt.Adrian Pollock (talk) 03:34, 10 January 2008 (UTC)