PHYSICS P109
(Acoustic Laboratory for the Speech and Hearing Sciences)

Indiana University Department of Physics
Fall Semester, 2009
http://oncourse.iu.edu/

• Goals of the course: The P109 Acoustic Laboratory for the Speech and Hearing Sciences investigates properties of vibrating systems and waves, standing waves and resonances, filtering, analysis and synthesis of complex sounds, formants and speech recognition, transducers for sound. The approximate number of labs devoted to different subjects is:
  • Introduction (1 lab)
  • Oscillating systems and measurement (1 labs)
  • Wave phenomena and resonance (2 labs)
  • Sound interference and propagation (2 labs)
  • Synthesis and analysis of waves (4 labs)
  • Fourier analysis (2 labs)

  We also learn about related electronic devices such as:

  • Transducers
  • Oscillators
  • Filters, and digital circuits

To study sound and the various electronic circuits, we introduce the use of instruments such as oscilloscopes, function generators, frequency counters, Fourier synthesizers, band-pass filters, and computer based digital signal analyzers. Some special topics will include study of room acoustics, transducers, and digital sound.

• Class Administration: All course administrative matters are handled through the Physics Academic Services Office in Swain West 132. Their phone is 855-3973 and their office hours are 9-11:55 a.m. and 1-4 p.m. daily.

• Text: P109 Lab Manual will be available at IU Bookstore. It will be also posted online: Lab Manual
  A few introductory textbooks such as
  • "Introduction to Sound" by Charles E. Speaks (3rd edition).
  • "The science of sound" by Thomas D. Rossing
  will be available in SW166.

• Laboratory: Class will meet in Swain West 166 (unless otherwise noted) on:
  • Wed 5:45PM - 8:45PM (Sect. 6180),
  
  Instructor: S.Y. Lee, email: shylee at indiana.edu
  Associate Instructor: Somogyi, Andy T, somogyie at indiana.edu

• Syllabus: P109 2009 syllabus

• Class Format: Hands-on experiments with short write-ups done in the lab. Pre-labs and post-labs assignments as necessary.

  The labs meet for up to 3 hours (2.5-3 hours on the average), and the goal is to set-up experiments, carry them out, and produce a lab report by the end of the period. We will first briefly review the important points about that week's lab. All the equipment will be provided, but you will set up the experiment yourself. You should carefully collect notes on what you do (including making diagrams showing the set-up, data tables and graphs) as you do each part. The lab report will consist of your notes in addition to answering all the questions that you find in the manual and a brief conclusion about what you learned.

• Exams: There are mid-term and final exams in this class.

• Schedule Changes: The last day to drop the course with an automatic grade of W is October 28, 2009.

• Miscellaneous: A calculator with trig functions is required in the labs.

• Final Grade: The course grade will be based on the lab writeups, prelabs, labs reports and exams. Each lab (including prelabs and postlabs) will be worth a maximum of 10 points. The lab meets on Wednesday. Because there are labs going on every day of the week, it is impossible to make up labs. For the final grade, your lowest score from your labs will be excluded (or one missed lab excused).

  We base your grade on your participation in the labs (10%), the prelabs (10%), completion of your lab reports (40%), overall evaluation of your project lab (10%), and the lab exams (30%). The exams will cover the activities and the content studied in the lab and the assigned readings associated with those labs. They are open book exams - you will be allowed to consult all your notes and any textbook you wish. There will be simple calculation problems (What is the period of a vibration with a frequency of 500Hz?), short answer or short essay questions (What does it mean when someone says that a 60 decibel sound is 100 times louder than a 40 decibel sound?) and a "practical" component to the exams, where you show that you can make measurements similar to those you made in the lab (you might be asked to use the computer program to measure the amplitude or period of a sound).

  The most important goal of the lab is to give you experience with sound. Since you can't get the experience if you aren't in lab, missing labs will hurt your lab grade. There are no make-up labs in P109 (the equipment is taken down at the end of each week and new equipment is set up). To allow for such problems as illness, family emergencies, job interviews, etc., you can miss one lab during the semester without penalty, for any reason.