Architectural Acoustics
Abstract
Arch itectural Acoustics OLETA A. BENN Instructor of Music, South High School, Akron, Ohio is ACOUSTICS the science of sound as applied to ARCHITECTURAL buildings. Its significance for music educators is at once apparent when we consider that sound is our stock in trade and that we ply our trade in buildings whose classrooms and auditoriums frequently detract from the display of our wares. Broadvisioned teachers would do well to develop a keener appreciation of our modern ability to control sound to fine degrees. There are four common defects which an architect must avoid in planning an auditorium: echoes, dead spots, sound foci, and reverberation. Echoes are repetitions of sounds, caused by regular reflection from smooth surfaces. The lapse of time before an echo is heard is due to the fact that the reflected sound has traveled a greater distance than the direct sound. If the difference in the distance traveled by these two sounds is greater than sixty-six feet, the reflected sound may arrive at the same time a later direct sound arrives its source, thereby causing confusion in the listener' s ears.from Dead spots and sound foci arise from the same cause as echoes. Dead spots