Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

nps.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 132 posts

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#121

Post by dghughes »

frereubu wrote: post #110
yeetaccount4 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A long time ago I moved from a big city to the country and the difference in noise was remarkable. In retrospect, I’d say noise level adjustment was actually the biggest pain point. I went from being fairly desensitized to constant noise to being hyper sensitive to something like a blade of grass being bent outside my bedroom (“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?”), to finally acclimating to it. Nights were difficult. Any animal…

I had a similar feeling moving from London to deep English countryside with my parents as a kid. But it was the sheer silence of the place we moved to that unnerved me, and it took me a good few weeks for me to go to sleep normally. (There were plenty of small animals, but my bedroom was on a high first floor, so I couldn’t hear things scuttling about). I live in a small city again now, and really miss the true quiet…

> But it was the sheer silence of the place we moved to that unnerved me

I live in a small town in Canada and I can travel outside the town just a few minutes and be in rural area. Although it's getting increasingly longer to get outside sprawl.

When I am there I often think to myself how quiet it is. At times it feels like my skull is going to collapse from the negative pressure of lack of sound.

And where I live near (~500m) the main hospital it seems to be with the increase in population comes an increase in ambulances. They at times seem to be constant on weekends or warm sunny days. Plus the emergency life flight helicopter. Maybe that's why the silence of rural areas is such a contrast to me.

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#122

Post by mdp2021 »

tomerbd wrote: post #108
genewitch wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't use noise cancelling headphones, at least on-ear and over-ear. I've never liked earbuds/IEM, so I never test them. However, active earmuffs are amazing. I had my favorite pair finally give out, they had FM radio and an aux jack, but we're not active. It was fun to run a chipper and listen to a podcast, for instance. For things I want hearing protection I have 4 choices now. The industry standard earplugs, whi…

What is "active earmuffs"?

Active noise cancelling is placing between ears and source an inverted wave generator.

A soundwave is coming, you intake it with a microphone and attempt producing its inversion in real time in speakers, to cancel it.

As I have written, it may not work properly with impactive noise - it can do the opposite, because the impactive sound is cleaner. Or, it may be calibrated for impactive noise - so there exist earmuffs that recognize shooting sounds at their inception, to reduce these selectively.

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#123

Post by mnw21cam »

lettergram wrote: post #27

I think it’s important to differentiate (as this website does) the human made noise from the natural. I love being in the woods / fields / lakes. Fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. when you’re out there for a while you realize how much noise there really is. I wish everyone could / would take a few days a month and just spend it in the the natural world. I feel revived after spending a day or two listening to the leaves…

It also varies. I live in a small village, and it's usually quite quiet, minus when a train goes past (railway is about half a mile away) or the bus goes past (bus route about 30 metres away). But on the very rare occasions when we get a decent covering of snow, then it gets really quiet - not just because the road is unused and the animals are hunkering down, but also because snow absorbs sound really well.

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#124

Post by mnw21cam »

hirundo wrote: post #2

This is almost interchangeable with a light pollution map. E.g. http://www.cleardarksky.com/maps/lp/large_light_pollution_ma... Funny how often human effects on the environment correlate with human population density.

Not completely. Light pollution travels further than noise pollution.

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#125

Post by tayo42 »

sofixa wrote: post #112
tayo42 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It drives me crazy. I really don't know how other people deal with it. Like my neighbors are so unbelievably loud, its starting to get to me. (I think some cultures identify with being loud?) Or do people just accept a poorer quality of life. Its pretty much the only reason why I think dense living is a bad idea. People are are to inconsiderate of each other to make it work I think and construction quality is too low…

> Its pretty much the only reason why I think dense living is a bad idea You can have quiet and soundproofed dense living. It just takes some standards and codes to take it into account. NotJustBikes recently made a video about how some Dutch cities are taking this very seriously ( like Delft), and how it works ( Cities aren't loud, cars are is the video name). In France good soundproofing is mandatory on new constru…

they won't care, quality of life issues don't matter in the US. Someone will just call you a "karen" or something.

Im skeptical of sound proofing actually working. I think to actually sound proof you need an airgap between walls? This is all really expensive too

But that only stops some sound. If its warm and you need to open your windows all of that effort doesnt matter. Your just stuck hoping you don't have loud neighbors. Right now my neighbor is practicing their saxophone, its loud and grating (and not well played) everyone's windows are open the weather is mild so im stuck listening to it

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#126

Post by mdp2021 »

mdp2021 wrote: post #83
joe-collins wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be more interesting to subtract one data set from the other, showing how much of the noise is human-induced? Perhaps there are some outliers.

One can already tell you some factors deductively (and verifiedly): it's not the density, it's the presence. Mass is phonoabsorbent; there where you have buildings, you have both noise from the inhabitants and shielding from the constructions. In the open spaces, one single source can pollute for even ten kilometers or five miles of distance, and more. The added effects of natural acoustics can be worsening - barking…

> Mass is phonoabsorbent

Sorry, I was tired. I meant to write that mass is phono-insulant (stops the passage of noise), not phono-absorbent (would not reflect noise).

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#127

Post by exegete »

shrimpx wrote: post #25

This map and the light pollution map are virtually identical to the population density map. It’s a cool map but the data isn’t surprising at all.

It might be the scale that’s important though. An energy consumption map would be similar to population density but the scale probably changes over time (more energy efficient devices, etc).

Also it would be interesting to see outliers - what areas don’t scale with population as much and why (policies, etc)?

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#128

Post by BeFlatXIII »

spodek wrote: post #111
lettergram wrote: post #27

I think it’s important to differentiate (as this website does) the human made noise from the natural. I love being in the woods / fields / lakes. Fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. when you’re out there for a while you realize how much noise there really is. I wish everyone could / would take a few days a month and just spend it in the the natural world. I feel revived after spending a day or two listening to the leaves…

Also the difference between outdoors a generation ago and outdoors now. Depending on where you are, the decrease in birdcalls is huge, but happens so slowly that most people don't know what we're missing. That loss has been happening over longer than a generation or two. Also, there are fewer places where you hear no car noises or planes at all. We can do something about it, but it takes work.

Even as part of the normal seasonal cycle, I don’t notice how much less birdsong there is until it’s spring once again and the air is filled with bird calls. I don’t notice it getting quieter overs the weeks leading into summer.

Re: The Sound of Silence: A Noise Map of the U.S.

#130

Post by genewitch »

tomerbd wrote: post #108
genewitch wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't use noise cancelling headphones, at least on-ear and over-ear. I've never liked earbuds/IEM, so I never test them. However, active earmuffs are amazing. I had my favorite pair finally give out, they had FM radio and an aux jack, but we're not active. It was fun to run a chipper and listen to a podcast, for instance. For things I want hearing protection I have 4 choices now. The industry standard earplugs, whi…

What is "active earmuffs"?

They're like shooting muffs/cans, except they have a microphone on each side, batteries, and an amplifier. when it's off, they're regular hearing protection. When you turn them on, you can adjust the volume from "slightly lower than without the muffs on", to "actual volume", to "hear a cricket fart across the street". When a loud sound is detected - say, clapping, gunfire, hitting an anvil - it shuts off the amplifier.

As an aside, since your ears are not ringing / recovering from a very loud sound, and the amplifier turns back on very quickly, you can hear the reverberations, echos, and sympathetic resonances. It's quite cool.

Post reply on HN