Physics Science

Whenever I have a question about core acoustical problems or find a reference to give to colleagues or students, it is Graff’s old but great “Wave Motion in Elastic Solids” I end up using or recommending by far the most. This book is a rare treat for it’s clarity, the material it covers and the derivation it contains. The book does things right in terms presentation. It does not leave important core derivations as exercise but presents them fully throughout the book. While exercises are present they are not needed to find material but do illustrate important concepts. The mathematical language is that of engineering mathematics that is still mostly typical today. My only critique is that alternative and more modern ways to arrive at certain derivations are missing (for example deriving the fundamental solution of the wave equation in the plane using distributions rather than through Hankel transforms or a treatment of the method of descend to relate wave equations of different dimensions). But this is a minor critique because the book at least contains comprehensive treatment of the Hankel transform path, while it is hard to find it in many other acoustics books of comparable level. In general a lot of concepts are derived and explained in unusual clarity and misconceptions about the applicability of certain methods beyond its realm is often not only avoided but also explained.

To cover the missing ground of treatment of the wave equation in terms of distributions and a nice and easy treatment of the method of descend I’d recommend Stein and Shakarchi’s recent, very accessible and overall just excellent “Fourier Analysis”, Princeton University Press, 2003.

Anybody that looks for a quality reference for acoustics, this is a real catch and if one wants to buy just one reference, this may well be the best one to get despite its age. Given its clarity it certainly is suitable for self-study.

Rating: 5 / 5