Selecting a new textbook for a graduate level course on vibration and fluid acoustics

At Brigham Young University we offer a graduate level course on the fundamentals of acoustics. This course has traditionally covered the fundamentals of vibration in masses and springs, strings, bars, membranes and plates in the first half of the course. The second half of the course covers the derivation of the wave equation, wave propagation, reflection and transmission phenomena, and source radiation problems. For a couple decades, we used Kinsler and Frey’s “Fundamentals of Acoustics” book but the rising costs, lack of updates, and dissatisfaction with the rigor of the book motivated us to find a new text. For a few years, we used Kinsler and Frey for the first half of the course (vibrations) and also Blackstock’s “Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics” for the second half (fluids). Two books meant even higher costs, although the Kinsler and Frey text was also used in another class at that time. When we switched instructors for the course, Anderson was asked to review Garrett’s “Understanding Acoustics” text and he ended up adopting it for this course. This talk will review our experiences in switching textbooks and discuss our reasons for selecting our current text and how we are using it in class in conjunction with pre-class reading quizzes, which has helped increase classroom discussions.