Physics in the Arts

Physics in the Arts, Third Edition gives science enthusiasts and liberal arts students an engaging, accessible exploration of physical phenomena, particularly with regard to sound and light. This book offers an alternative route to science literacy for those interested in the arts, music and photography. Suitable for a typical course on sound and light for non-science majors, Gilbert and Haeberli’s trusted text covers the nature of sound and sound perception as well as important concepts and topics such as light and light waves, reflection and refraction, lenses, the eye and the ear, photography, color and color vision, and additive and subtractive color mixing. Additional sections cover color generating mechanisms, periodic oscillations, simple harmonic motion, damped oscillations and resonance, vibration of strings, Fourier analysis, musical scales and musical instruments.

Table of Contents:
1. Light and Light Waves 2. Reflection and Refraction 3. Lenses 4. The Human Eye 5. Photography 6. Color and Color Vision 7. Additive Color Mixing 8. Subtractive Color Mixing 9. Color Generating Mechanisms 10. Sound Waves 11. Simple Harmonic Motion 12. Damping and Resonance 13. Vibration of Strings 14. Waves in Pipes 15. Superposition, beats, and Harmony 16. Musical Scales 17. Fourier Analysis 18. Musical Instruments 19. Sound Perception: Timbre, Loudness, and Pitch 20. The Ear 21. Solutions to Problems

About the Author :
Pupa Gilbert is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an amateur surrealist painter. She is a physicist with passionate loves for biology, geoscience, and modern art. She studied at the Sapienza University of Rome, worked as a staff scientist at the Italian National Research Council and at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne until she joined the University of Wisconsin in 1999. Her research focuses on biominerals, including coral skeletons, tooth enamel, nacre, and sea urchin spines. She studies them with spectromicroscopy methods at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, where she discovers the complex structures of the biominerals, and their formation mechanisms. She won several awards for her research and teaching, including the UW-Madison Distinguished Teaching Award in 2011, Radcliffe Fellowship 2014-15, and the David A. Shirley Award in 2018. She lives in Madison and Berkeley with her husband Ben.