New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie • Hacker News Board

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#51

Post by interestica » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 4:51 PM UTC

dessant wrote: post #14

I'm just glad they identified the source of the hum, many people are impacted for years by unexplainable sounds, and it is maddening. It took me and my neighbours a month to find the source of a hum that was resonating with our windows. It was torture, with midnight walks and lurking around potential sources, mapping nearby industrial sites, and questioning our sanity, while our windows were vibrating without a stop.…

Crazy. Could someone do this maliciously? Was there any specific aspect of the window that made it resonate more than another?

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#52

Post by technicaldonut » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 4:54 PM UTC

klohto wrote: post #49

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geez, I'm torn on number one, since obviously locals should be able to live in peace, but the world is in such incredibly dire need of clean energy. Surely this was an issue with these specific turbines, right? Not a problem with all of them?

Anecdotal evidence, but I have the same experience as well. I’m not from US, so I will assume it’s a different type of turbine. Wind turbines were installed near our village and my family started hearing sounds and feeling vibrations. I didn’t hear and don’t hear them when I return there, but it forced my parents to leave their home. It’s a horrible feeling, especially since people don’t believe you. It can hardly be…

That's actually a scientifically recorded fact.

German researches recorded the sleep patterns of 397 residents in areas where there was previously no mobile reception. After erecting 10 towers, many people complained about a change in sleep patterns. 5 of the 10 towers were turned off though so had no actual effect. Just the believe was enough to cause problems. [0]

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20737608/

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#53

Post by ireflect » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 4:55 PM UTC

This is very similar to an Aeolian Harp, also known as a wind harp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_harp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtzSm76ppS4

They are pretty cool art installations. The Golden Gate bridge may now be the largest such installation ever built!

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#54

Post by Marsymars » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 4:57 PM UTC

dessant wrote: post #14

I'm just glad they identified the source of the hum, many people are impacted for years by unexplainable sounds, and it is maddening. It took me and my neighbours a month to find the source of a hum that was resonating with our windows. It was torture, with midnight walks and lurking around potential sources, mapping nearby industrial sites, and questioning our sanity, while our windows were vibrating without a stop.…

A couple years ago I got moved to a new office where I could hear an awful humming noise from the light ballasts in the ceiling when the lights in a showroom/lobby downstairs were turned on. None of other dozen people in my office could hear it.

I feel like I wasted a bunch of perfectly good political capital at work in my fight with building management to get them to fix the lights. They finally replaced them with ballast-free LEDs after six months.

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#55

Post by madaxe_again » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 4:58 PM UTC

tempodox wrote: post #44

I wonder whether this could have a destabilizing effect on the construction over time?

Yeah, I wondered this, given that you can use tones like this to, say, loosen bolts.

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#56

Post by oliveshell » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

technicaldonut wrote: post #52

klohto wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal evidence, but I have the same experience as well. I’m not from US, so I will assume it’s a different type of turbine. Wind turbines were installed near our village and my family started hearing sounds and feeling vibrations. I didn’t hear and don’t hear them when I return there, but it forced my parents to leave their home. It’s a horrible feeling, especially since people don’t believe you. It can hardly be…

That's actually a scientifically recorded fact. German researches recorded the sleep patterns of 397 residents in areas where there was previously no mobile reception. After erecting 10 towers, many people complained about a change in sleep patterns. 5 of the 10 towers were turned off though so had no actual effect. Just the believe was enough to cause problems. [0] [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20737608/

Well, it could have been unrelated to radio emissions: resonant sounds caused by wind blowing through the tall towers, for example.

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#57

Post by tbodt » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

dessant wrote: post #14

I'm just glad they identified the source of the hum, many people are impacted for years by unexplainable sounds, and it is maddening. It took me and my neighbours a month to find the source of a hum that was resonating with our windows. It was torture, with midnight walks and lurking around potential sources, mapping nearby industrial sites, and questioning our sanity, while our windows were vibrating without a stop.…

https://xkcd.com/1590/

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#58

Post by dijit » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

ljm wrote: post #43

ketzo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was such an insane thing to discover my first time on the BART. I’m sitting there thinking a catastrophic accident is about to occur, but everyone else is just on their phones... oh, that’s just the screech!

From a Londoner's perspective, this is giving me tortured flashbacks to travelling on the Jubilee Line. It's physically painful to hear once you start speeding up inside the tunnels.

A lot of the lines are like that, especially once it’s summer and you can barely survive without having the windows down. Dangerously loud.

Although I also have sensitive ears. :/

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#59

Post by johnfn » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

mareko wrote: post #46

johnfn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I lived in Nob Hill, there was a quiet long beeping sound that could be heard every couple of minutes - imagine a quiet booooop and you're pretty much there. Definitely sounded electronic. The weird thing was I could actually hear it on quiet days in a large radius in Nob Hill. It didn't seem to be localized on my house. I was never able to identify it, and searching online gave me nothing.

Could you be hearing one of the many foghorns in the bay? https://youtu.be/jJWd5eHeFY4

Pretty interesting hypothesis! I don't think so, though. It was a fairly electronic sounding boop, almost like a low sine wave. A fog horn sound has more acoustic qualities to it. Also, if it was a fog horn, I don't know why it would only be audible in Nob Hill and no where else I've been in SF.

Re: New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie

#60

Post by stingrae » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

klyrs wrote: post #4

Worse mistakes have been made https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940) Pretty sure every bridge engineer knows that one. Amusing that the lesson didn't generalize.

Interestingly, the Golden Gate Bridge is a sister bridge to the tacoma narrows bridge. After the bridge failed, they added reinforcements to the golden gate bridge to attempt to fix the issue.