I am constantly amazed by this remarkable book. It remains a topical reference for theoretical methods in acoustics, despite the advent of computational methods that allow modern acousticians to solve models on their desktop. I recently had the job of reviewing a patent for an acoustic transducer -- and sure enough I found this "modern" idea in good-ol' Morse and Ingard. In my opinion it is a must.

This book was lying on the bookshelf long enough, because the title " Theoretical Acoustics" did not encourage me to take it up with any commitment. I work in the field of acoustics and I had to work on the basics of Moving Sources and that was the time I picked it up to read. The material was so clearly presented, with clear reasoning, that it motivated me to read the preceeding chapters as well.The book is very clearly written and presented. It assumes no acoustic or vibration background for the reader. The subject is built up step-by-step without comprimising on either physics or mathematics. The treatment of the subject starts with basic vibration theory, without which any further development in Acoustics is impossible and then introduces the Wave Equation. It proceeds with Radiation and Scattering of sound. This is highly relevant from the view of scattering of submarines, hulls etc., among other applications. More advanced treatment on how sound waves behave in ducts and rooms is presented. The section on structural acoustic coupling is very well presented. The entire book assumes that one has a sufficent background on fundamentals of differential equations and maths in general. If one has a flair for maths, then this is the book for acoustics. Treatment is complete with sufficient physical insight provided into the equations. This book is a must for acousticians and researchers in acoustics. An excellent work by one of the most regarded reserchers in the area of applied and theortical mathematics.

Morse is a fairly well-known mathematical physicist (that is, he was famous enough to be known outside his field), and this is his autobiography. I'm reviewing it from memory, since I read it when it first came out in the 70's, but it made an impression on me. He's literate, and comes across as very straightforward (although perhaps he just maintains this pose for the duration of the book -- I never met him), and he was involved in many fascinating areas.

In addition to his work in physics (among other things, he was the primary or sole author of a some standard graduate level textbooks), he was one of the "inventors" of operations research while working for the Navy during WWII. The story of the atomic bomb research is pretty well documented, and the story of the development of radar can be read in more than one place, but this is the only account I've seen of "the rest" of the vast amount of R&D work that was funded by the War Department during WWII.

Among the interesting anecdotes he relates, he was one of Feynmann's teachers in college, and Feynmann's father came to ask him (Morse) if his son (Richard) should go to grad school in physics. Morse was perceptive enough to assure the father that his son had what it took...

If you are interested in personalized accounts of the history 20th century science, this book is for you. It's similar in scope to Ulam's book about the atom bomb, but much better written, and the author comes across as quite human (which often doesn't happen in autobiographies of scientists).

In response to questions from colleagues and students i'm posting this review.
This was the standard text many years ago.
Many current topics on mathematical Quantization and Stochastic Optimization are conspicuously abscent.
The publisher is working on a two Volume Paperback edition that will be available shortly, so save your money and buy this 2-vol set for one fifth the price.

Current physics students had less mathematical trainings than those did several decades ago, when computer wasn't popular. So this book is probably too hard to read through and to work on its problems. But if you force yourself, you will begin to appreciate the beauty of mathematics. The chapter about Green's function is escpecially good, never had a so vivid lecture on Green's function before. Actually, when I read this book, I felt Green's function is the kernel and the main bone of this book. It appears almost in every chapter.

The price is pretty high, but if you choose physics as your career, it's worth to have this book, both for academic and entertaining purposes.

THE classic text, still excellent, tho' somewhat dated. Well worth having because (a) the extremely physical viewpoint is helpful for theorists and easier for experimentalists, (b) the older viewpoint is different from that of more modern texts, and still worthwhile; multiple viewpoints increase understanding.