*Acoustics from Interior Designer Perspective DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84167*

*Acoustics of Materials*

**2. Acoustics and related field of specializations**

acoustical design clarified within this chapter.

**2.1 Acoustics in engineering**

When and how does humanity recognize acoustics?

The applications of the acoustics start from the historical eras for a diversity of purposes. From the prehistorical eras to the modern decades, especially with the emerging of the science and the recent innovations, the science of sound focused on informing, healing, and amusing. The main purpose of acoustics in design is the hearing of the required sounds. The diversity of disciplines, which deal with the acoustics, arises through some fields. R. Bruce Lindsay created "Lindsay's Wheel of Acoustics" (**Figure 1**) [1]. This wheel shows the fields of acoustics starting with the four broad fields of earth sciences, engineering, life sciences, and the arts. The outer circle lists the various broad disciplines one may study to prepare for a career in acoustics. The inner circle lists the fields within acoustics to which many fields naturally lead. The highlighted area shows the room acoustics, or the interior acoustical design, as well as all the related fields affecting to some extent the interior

Acoustic engineering is the branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration, on its physical aspects. It is the application of the science of sound and vibration, in technology, typically concerned with the design, analysis, and control of sound. It also covers additional uses of sound, from the use of ultrasound in medicine to the programming of digital sound synthesizers. Acoustics, like engineering,

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**Figure 1.**

*Lindsay's wheel of acoustics.*

deals with the electroacoustic elements, which are the electrical sound systems (microphones, headphones, loudspeakers, sound systems, sound masking, noise control, recording, and reproduction of sound). Acoustical engineer interprets with the sound from the physics perception. However, this side of the acoustics does affect the interior, as part of the whole design.
