Animations Created in Mathematics for Acoustics Education

Abstract: For the last several years the authors have integrated animations into their curricula for teaching acoustics and vibrations. The purpose of this short paper is to explain how the animations are constructed in Mathernatica, how they are postprocessed for easy viewing, and to describe the locations where our animations are available for use by all interested individuals. For readers who may wish to build their own Mathematics animations, a hint for effective presentations is given from the authors ’ experiences. Finally, the future of such animations is projected. BACKGROUND AND ANIMATION CONSTRUCTION Using computer animations to teach acoustics and vibrations is not a new idea, as the late Prof. Manhed Heckl’s magnificent works attest. (Dr. Heckl’s movies are not widely available, unfortunately.) The present authors desired a flexible system for constructing their own animations. The Mathematics symbolic manip ulation program made its debut in 1987, and proved to be an ideal platform for developing such animations (1). The present animations are created in a recent version of Mathematics (2), and then are exported as either QuickTime (3) or MPEG (4) movies. The movies can be viewed by students either directly off of the computer or on a large VCR monitor after being dumped to videotape. Some of these animations have also been incorporated into CD-ROMs developed for teaching noise control engineering (5). A typical animation is constructed by performing a Do [] loop over a Mathematics Plot [I command, wherein some parameter changes, e.g., the time. For example, DoC Plot