SCI 2000 - Sound and Light

• 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

• Calculus 1

• 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.