Wednesday 3 September 2014

Noise! Noise! Noise!

1.  Astronomer Fred Hoyle coined the term Big Bang in the 1950's.  He wasn't referring to the noise but to the fact that he thought the theory was ridiculous.

2.  Krakatoa, a volcano in Sumatra which erupted in 1883, had the explosive power of 200 megatons.  It could be heard 3000 miles away, making it the loudest recorded noise ever.

3.  Some people attend decibel drag races, pumping 120 decibels of noise in their car stereo speakers.  That's how loud a jet engine sounds a foot from your hear.

4.  Thomas Barr conducted a scientific noise study in Glasgow in 1886.  He tested the hearing of 100 boilermakers and determined that incessant pounding of hammers against metal boilers caused severe hearing loss or "boilermaker's ear".

5.  Researchers at the Universite de Bretagne Sud concluded that men imbibe 20% faster when the ambient noise is cranked up from 72 to 88 decibels.

6.  The volume of an animated conversation increased by 10% over the 1990's according to the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

7.  Noisy navy sonar caused beaked whales to beach themselves and humpbacks extend the length of their songs by 29%.

8.  The first known noise ordinance was passed in a Greek province in the 6th Century BC.  Tinsmiths and roosters were required to live outside the city limits.

9.  Since the decibel scale is logarithmic, growing exponentially, that means a jet sounds ten times noisier than a train when the noise levels of both are objectively the same.

10.  The human ear can perceive sound waves that move the eardrum less than the width of an atom.




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