Ian Johnston is a physicist interested in music and with a belief that the two fields have much to offer one another. The purpose of this book is to show that, by linking the two subjects, enjoyment of music can be increased and so can the understanding of physics.
Anyone with an interest in music will find that an appreciation of the physics will add to their enjoyment: general science readers, practicing scientists with an interest in music, musicians and music students; undergraduate students of music taking option courses in physics of music and those taking extra mural or adult education courses in music.
Ian Johnston spent his early years on a pineapple farm in southern Queensland, studied physics and mathematics at the Universities of Queensland and Sydney, and was appointed to a lecturing position at the University of Sydney in the late 1960s. He has been there ever since until he retired in 2001, except for two separate years in the U.S. at Cornell and Maryland Universities and one year in England at the Open University.
His early research work was in theoretical astrophysics, but lately he has become interested in research into physics education, with particular emphasis on the role to be played by computers and other forms of information technology. He has written a deal of educational software as a member of several international consortiums, most notably the Maryland University Project in Physics and Educational Technology (M.U.P.P.E.T.) and the Consortium for Upper-Level Physics Software (CUPS). His interest in acoustics and music has been with him all his working life.
In 1989 he made a series of six programs on Australian national radio, devoted to physics and music. It was from those programs that the idea of this book first arose. He has also made programs on other subjects of general interest, including astronomy and religion, science fiction and pseudo-science.
