The Acoustical Society of America is an international scientific society dedicated to increasing and diffusing the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications. Acoustics is a branch of physics and is the study of sound, mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids. ...

The ASA was instigated by Wallace Waterfall, Floyd Watson, and Vern Knudsen. On December 27, 1928, approximately 40 scientists and engineers interested in acoustics met the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York, NY, to consider the formation of a scientific society for acoustics. Just a few months later, the Acoustical Society of America held its first meeting on May 10-11, 1929, with approximately 450 charter members. In 1931 the Acoustical Society joined with three other scientific societies to form the American Institute of Physics. Bell Telephone Laboratories or Bell Labs was originally the research and development arm of the United States Bell System, and was the premier corporate facility of its type, developing a range of revolutionary technologies from telephone switches to specialized coverings for telephone cables, to the transistor. ... The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is a professional body representing American physicists and publishing physics related journals. ...

From its inception, the ASA's members have helped develop acoustical standards. In 1932, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) appointed the Acoustical Society as sponsor of a committee to standardize acoustical terminology and measurements. In 1957 this committee split into three follow-on committees: S1 on Acoustics, S2 on Mechanical Shock and Vibration, and S3 on Bioacoustics, with a fourth, S12 on Noise, added in 1981. The ASA also distributes ISO and IEC standards. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit standards organization that produces industrial standards in the United States. ... In other languages Iso means the following in other languages: Big in Finnish a Latin transliteration of the Greek ίσος, meaning equal. ... The initials IEC can stand for: Independent Electoral Commission Industrial Emergency Council Institut des Experts-comptables et des Conseils fiscaux Institut dEstudis Catalans, Catalan Studies Institute Interactive Evolutionary Computation International Education Centre International Electrical Congress International Electrotechnical Commission See also IEC connector for IEC cord International Engineering Consortium International...

The ASA publishes the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA), the Acoustics Research Letters Online (ARLO), and a wide range of books and videos on topics related to acoustics.