Paul Poiretrsquo;s autobiography tells the extraordinary story of
#306182 in eBooks 2012-12-12 2012-12-19File Name: B009X0O7WU
Review
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. An Insightful BookBy Dave in Painted PostI have been reading Prof. Hellers book rather steadily since receiving it so promptly via Prime.On the plus side: (1) the writing style is informal. non mathematical and informative. (2) there are some interesting explanations of phenomena that are often glossed over by resorting to dry mathematical derivations sans insightful comments in other books. (3) Heller makes extensive use of the autocorrelation as a metric for estimating pitch. Many physics of music and acoustics texts give a one sentence definition of pitch and move on. (4) there are many graphs and pictures to augment the discussion.On the negative side: (1) Prof. Hellers explanations occasionally become a bit convoluted and his arguments sometimes appear to be circular in that he uses a concept that he is attempting to explain to also support his arguments. (2) many of the graphs use color but are often quite small and the axes are not labeled. (3) Heller occasionally inserts some mathematics into the discussion but in my humble opinion not effectively. His discussion of waves gets descriptively entangled while he could have concisely and clearly presented the material via the wave equation. His discussion of traveling waves on a vibrating string seems lacking. (4) I have applied Matlab to his many examples. especially those dealing with the autocorrelation and I have found errors in his conclusions as to the pitch. Although excited about this supposedly neat tool for estimating pitch. I am a bit mystified at his use of it.I wish there were a way to communicate my concerns to Prof. Heller but his web site gives no email nor does the Harvard faculty directory. I suppose that his fame precludes accessibility.In spite of these negative comments. I greatly value this book and have learned a lot from it. I continue to read and study it...but with a jaundiced eye.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Beautiful and groundbreaking treatment of sound wavesBy William G. HarterFinally. musicians. piano technicians. and any intelligent person who enjoys music and the sounds of nature has a clearly written and beautifully illustrated textbook to learn about those waves that are bouncing around and inside ones ears.Heller has used his knowledge of waves gained from decades of leading research on quantum wave-packets to bring sound wave mechanics and its human experience to a general audience.Heller has also used his talent as an artist and expertise in computer graphics to provide lavish illustrations to expose what would otherwise be a highly mathematical subject.The book grew out of a Harvard course intended for non-science majors on music and acoustics.It has resulted in an exposition that all can learn from and enjoy. even some of those geeky science majors!2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. great book. which works at many levelsBy Michael CohenI am learning a lot from this book. The author has a deep intuition about physics and acoustics. which he conveys to the reader via many examples and illustrations. many of which i hadnt encountered in other similar textbooks. The writing style is occasionally awkward. and like a lot of clever people. sometimes Prof. Heller doesnt realize how much more clever he is than "ordinary" readers.The Kindle version is often quite convenient (including the ability to call up international dictionaries). but the equation formatting isnt very pretty (not the authors fault!). His use of the Falstad "Ripple" app (also available as a stand-alone app for iOS) is welcome. as one can often learn more from interactive demonstrations than from even patient explanations. This is a rich and deep resource. to which students and their teachers can return indefinitely to continuously mine for ideas and insights.
