SCI 2000 - Sound and Light

3 lecture hours 0 lab hours 3 credits

Course Description
Human hearing and vision are exquisitely sensitive instruments for investigating the world around us. This course features an exploration of the biological, chemical, and physical mechanisms of how these senses detect sound and light as well as some of the psychological impacts of these sense experiences. This exploration of senses is paired with discussion of how waves behave (sound and light are types of waves), including wave generation, propagation, attenuation, and other wave phenomena. The course also compares the natural audio and electromagnetic radiation that humans have evolved to perceive with the man-made sources that fill our everyday experience and discusses qualitative and quantitative techniques for evaluating and comparing sources. Building on these basic concepts, the course seeks to give students tools to investigate how these phenomena impact experience of the world as well as how these ideas can be used purposefully in human-designed spaces.
Prereq: MTH 1110 (quarter system prereq: MA 136)
Note: Students choose between Think Critically or Exhibit Curiosity.
This course meets the following Raider Core CLO Requirement: Think Critically, Exhibit Curiosity

Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Explain the operation of the human hearing and vision systems in detail including physiological and neurological mechanisms as well as psychological impacts
Describe characteristics of sound and articulate criteria for evaluation and comparison of sounds, including quantitative measures such as harmonic content but also more subjective features
Distinguish between standing and traveling waves and perform simple wave calculations, such as finding the period, frequency and amplitude in simple harmonic motion
Explain and predict wave phenomena such as refraction, interference, the effect of polarization elements, beat frequencies, the doppler effect, etc.
Recognize the difference in scale and propagation media between sound and light waves
Know the speed of light and be able to determine the speed of sound in air from the temperature
Convert from decibels to watts per square meter and vice versa
Define and distinguish photometric terms such as intensity, irradiance, lumen, foot-candle, lambert, etc.
Calculate the illuminance on a surface due to a given source
Predict the resultant color obtained by mixing two colors of light
Compare qualitatively and quantitatively artificial and natural light sources as well as identify criteria for evaluating light sources
Perform acoustic calculations such as predicting the reverberation time in a room whose materials and dimensions are given
Perform illumination calculations such as determining the number of light fixtures of a given type that are required to produce a given illumination level in a room

Prerequisites by Topic

Calculus 1

Course Topics

General physiology of human hearing and vision
The perception of light, human eye physiology and sensitivity, comparative eye physiology, contrasting with cameras, etc.
The perception of sound, noise vs music, why are some sounds pleasing and others not
Waves, standing waves, wave propagation,
Wave phenomena such as refraction and interference
Sound levels, dB scale, sound wave propagation
Sound absorption and isolation and calculations
Sound generation, instruments, harmonics, spectral characteristics
Performance acoustics, unique spaces such as concert halls, acoustic technology
Physics of light and color, light waves, polarization
Artificial light sources, their spectra, brightness, directionality, and other comparisons
Properties of natural light, scattering of light
Lighting calculations, intensity, luminosity, etc.
Electrical implications of different light sources: e.g. dimming, color, efficiency, etc.

Coordinator
Dr. Zach Simmons

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