Jim Lesurf has spent a lifetime in audio, both as an engineer at UK hi-fi company Armstrong and reader in Physics and Electronics at St Andrew’s University
If it stinks, it’s chemistry. If it bites, it’s biology. And if it goes wrong, it’s physics.’ It’s an old joke, and while it carries some truth, in reality a better description of physics is that it is ‘the science of measurement’. In itself that may sound uninteresting. Until, that is, you realise the implications of this.
On one level, measurements are the way we collect information, which can be the basis of knowledge and understanding. On a more practical level, though, measurement is actually what is going on when someone hooks up microphones and makes a recording of music or broadcasts it.…
