title: A short history of bad acoustics.
abstract: Every branch of science attracts its share of cranks and pseudoscientists, and acoustics has been no exception. A brief survey of those who touched on acoustics is given with quotations from the more interesting or egregious examples. A contrast is drawn between the nineteenth century contrarian's quarrel with particular theories and the modern new age wholesale rejection of theory. This world-view is traced back to the later scientific writings of Goethe. Examples of pseudoscience applied to biomedical acoustics, architectural acoustics, and audio reproduction are given.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom. mcmw@isvr.soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: M C M
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D003210:Concept Formation; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D010825:Physics / Q000266:history*; D013016:Sound