PHYSICS P109: Introductory Acoustic Laboratory

Introductory Acoustic Laboratory can be taken concurrent to P105: Basic Physics of Sound. It is intended to enhance understanding of "the physics of sound" through hand on experiments. This course also satisfies the requirement of General Science Education.

Indiana University Department of Physics
Fall Semester, 2012
http://oncourse.iu.edu/
P109_syllabus
P109 Pictures

• Goals of the course: The P109 Introductory Acoustic Laboratory 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 relevent electronic devices such as:

  • Transducers
  • Oscillators
  • circuits for high/low/band pass Filters

To study sound and the various electronic circuits, we introduce the use of instruments such as oscilloscopes, function generators, frequency counters, Fourier synthesizers, low/high pass filter, band-pass filters, and computer based digital signal analyzers.

• 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.

• Lab Manual:
  The P109 manual will be available at TIS Bookstore, UNION, and EIGENMANN bookstores. (See Add_orders.txt for additional information in case your bookstore does not have a copy).
  The Lab Manual is also available online (see the syllabus link above). You have to print the lab manual and bring it to your lab.

  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 1:25PM - 4:25PM (Sect. 20265),

• Syllabus: P109 2012 syllabus
  See web-page link at top.

• Class Format: Hands-on experiments with short write-ups done in the lab. Pre-labs and post-labs reports are required.

  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 is no exam in this class. Class grade is determined by your Lab reports and prelab reports

• Schedule Changes: The last day to drop the course with an automatic grade of W is October 24, 2012.

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

• Final Grade: 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. The course grade will be based on the prelabs, your lab reports and Lab participation. Each lab (including prelab and lab report) will be worth a maximum of 10 points. The final Lab grade is based on the prelabs (40%), your participation in the labs (10%), and your lab reports (50%).