Sound and Light

Catalog 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.