What Are Acoustics? (Attempt #2)

I spoke too soon. I am back on World Book for a much shorter article only on acoustics. You can access this article here. This article was very helpful in explaining what acoustics are. Acoustics are a branch of physics dealing with sound. So, rather than acoustical research within sound, as I thought, it is actually the other way around. Acoustics are sound. Never the less, the article did provide many new, interesting facts. One intriguing one is that there is an acoustic spectrum. The acoustic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies. The spectrum can be divided into audible sound, infrasound, and ultra sound. Audible sound is what the human ear can hear. Infrasound is frequencies that are too deep in pitch for us to hear. Lastly, ultrasound is frequencies that are too high in pitch for the human ear to hear. Scientists that are in the field of acoustical research are called Acousticians. They use microphones to measure sound in the air, and hydrophones to measure sound in the water. To detect vibrations, they use accelerometers and geophones. Even laser beams are used to detect vibrations! They don't even have to touch the object. Sound is measured in waves, so when it hits an object, there can be four different results. The waves can be diffracted, dissipated, reflected, or refracted. In more common terms, they can be spread out, absorbed, reflected, or bent. Acoustical research has many branches within its own branch. There's architectural acoustics, environmental acoustics, underwater acoustics, physiological acoustics, psychological acoustics, speech communication, musical acoustics, medical acoustics, and lastly, bioacoustics. To read more about each type of acoustic, please reference the article. Today's work cited:
Tucholski, Edward J. "Acoustics." World Book Student. World Book, 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2011