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Summary: An Excellent Primer for Anyone Interested in Noise
Review: This book is both engaging and informative. Written for non-engineers, this book is an excellent resource for a wide range of interested parties, regardless of their educational background. Consultants, citizen activists, municipal planners, and concerned enforcement personnel can all profit from this non-technical, non-mathematical treatise on all aspects of community noise. Mr. Cowan has taken an exceptionally complex discipline, and given an overview that can round out almost anyone's understanding of the field, and it's filled with plenty of genuinely interesting facts. Herewith is a list of the chapter titles: Acoustic Terminology; Noise Descriptors; Noise Measurement; Noise Control Terminology and Design; Noise Regulations, Guidelines, and Ordinances; Common Noise Sources; and Construction Issues. Included is a well-written and well-reasoned Model Municipal Noise Ordinance. Even the chapter titles don't do justice to all that's covered in the Handbook. In the Acoustic Terminology chapter, there's a concise section on the Hearing Mechanism, and the mechanics of hearing loss. He weaves in fascinating facts such as: the middle ear ossicles not only carry the acoustic signal to the inner ear, but actually amplify the signal more than 20 times between the eardrum and the oval window. You may consider yourself an expert in some area relating to noise, but it's almost a certainty that you'll learn a number of new things from this book. This book could be a tremendous tool for the motivated complainant who is faced with a noise source that is exempted from the local noise ordinance. If they want to approach the problem politically, in meetings, this will provide a crash education that can mold them into a knowledgeable advocate in a very short time. Put some power in your hands, as, after all, knowledge is powerEric M. Zwerling, Director Rutgers Noise Technical Assistance Center
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