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

A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

timesherald.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 99 posts

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#51

Post by huggyface »

its_so_on wrote: post #45
zipdog wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 45 minutes aspect is misleading. They haven't been using the room to test that, its just that no-one has spent longer than that so far.

Our title is (currently) "A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it", and the Times Herald headline is even more specific: "A room so quiet no one can stand it for more than 45 minutes." I'm wondering what it is they 'can't stand.' The article text is pretty vague. '“ Your eyes don’t feel as comfortable in this room,” Orfield pointed out, adding that some visitors have had hallucinations during or…

I think zipdog hit it on the head, and it's the PR-spin that turns it into seeming untested, unproven "no one can stand" bit.

Have they had open competitions? I feel relatively certain that people would endure in there effectively indefinitely: People can tolerate remarkable things.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#52

Post by dsirijus »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #44
X-Istence wrote: post #16

He mentioned that people generally can't be in there longer than 45 minutes. I would love to test that theory. Give me a desk, a laptop, and let me get to work. The most interesting thing would be whether or not my tinnitus is going to drive me insane or not :P

In a room this quiet I assume using keyboard will sound very loud.

Quite the opposite - hence, 'quiet room'.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#53

Post by SeanLuke »

its_so_on wrote: post #37

I don't get why people can't spend more than 45 minutes in there. I understand that you begin to hear your heartbeat and so on, but surely anyone who is even slightly deaf (e.g. even from just prolonged listening to loud music) wouldn't hear these very low-decibel sounds? So it can't be the lack of sound, as a slightly hard of hearing person hears the noise floor drop out quite frequently. (Correct me if I'm wrong he…

I cannot speak to partial deafness, but I used to work in an anechoic chamber. It is indeed soul-suckingly disturbing after short periods of time. Even a totally "silent" environment has tremendous amounts of reverb and low-level reflected noise: you just filter it out automatically. In an anechoic chamber, this noise is gone, and your filter goes haywire. It starts filtering things that aren't there. You start hearing your own blood vessels in your eardrum, yes, but you also perceive a kind of disturbing anti-noise. It's very hard to describe.

Top it off with the fact that usually such rooms are entirely sealed off and that you're standing or sitting on a big mesh trampoline floating in the center of the room, and it all comes to one seriously creepy experience after about ten minutes.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#54

Post by jsiarto »

artmageddon wrote: post #48
agscala wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading this article, I immediately started to see if I could find one nearby and found out about the one at Michigan State. Would it be possible for me to go there and sit inside for a bit to experience this, even though I'm not a MSU student?

Likewise, I'd like to try this... it seems cool as hell!

Hey all -- I can see if I can arrange something. The chamber is in the basement of the Communication Arts and Sciences building and I teach in the College--but I don't know who currently runs it. Let me send some emails and see what I can do.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#55

Post by terangdom »

SeanLuke wrote: post #53
its_so_on wrote: post #37

I don't get why people can't spend more than 45 minutes in there. I understand that you begin to hear your heartbeat and so on, but surely anyone who is even slightly deaf (e.g. even from just prolonged listening to loud music) wouldn't hear these very low-decibel sounds? So it can't be the lack of sound, as a slightly hard of hearing person hears the noise floor drop out quite frequently. (Correct me if I'm wrong he…

I cannot speak to partial deafness, but I used to work in an anechoic chamber. It is indeed soul-suckingly disturbing after short periods of time. Even a totally "silent" environment has tremendous amounts of reverb and low-level reflected noise: you just filter it out automatically. In an anechoic chamber, this noise is gone, and your filter goes haywire. It starts filtering things that aren't there. You start heari…

How does it compare to using earplugs in a silent room?

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#56

Post by jff »

its_so_on wrote: post #37

I don't get why people can't spend more than 45 minutes in there. I understand that you begin to hear your heartbeat and so on, but surely anyone who is even slightly deaf (e.g. even from just prolonged listening to loud music) wouldn't hear these very low-decibel sounds? So it can't be the lack of sound, as a slightly hard of hearing person hears the noise floor drop out quite frequently. (Correct me if I'm wrong he…

Well, I've got access... I could take a book and go sit in our anechoic chamber for an hour, I guess. If I decide to try it, I'll report back.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#57

Post by agscala »

jsiarto wrote: post #54
artmageddon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, I'd like to try this... it seems cool as hell!

Hey all -- I can see if I can arrange something. The chamber is in the basement of the Communication Arts and Sciences building and I teach in the College--but I don't know who currently runs it. Let me send some emails and see what I can do.

Sure thing, I'd be up for a trip out there and maybe we can meet up and grab food/drinks afterwards.

Send me an email since you don't have one listed in your profile! agscala@gmail.com

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#58

Post by Anechoic »

planetguy wrote: post #50
its_so_on wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our title is (currently) "A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it", and the Times Herald headline is even more specific: "A room so quiet no one can stand it for more than 45 minutes." I'm wondering what it is they 'can't stand.' The article text is pretty vague. '“ Your eyes don’t feel as comfortable in this room,” Orfield pointed out, adding that some visitors have had hallucinations during or…

Look, the "45 minutes" thing is total clickbait. I've been in an anechoic chamber and it is a little disconcerting and weird to suddenly find yourself hearing nothing at all. I only spent a few minutes in there, and it's not uncomfortable at first, but it feels good to get out. It's basically just a feeling of disorientation. But I have no doubt that, properly motivated, you could easily spend an hour in there. Hell,…

I've been in an anechoic chamber ... and it's not uncomfortable at first, but it feels good to get out

Not all anechoic chambers are equal, and not all anechoic chambers are necessarily quiet - they're only as quiet as they need to be for whatever it's designed to test (an anechoic chamber designed to test ICE equipment might have background noise levels in the 40-50 dBA range), so be careful about extrapolating your experience to the quietest anechoic chamber in the world.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#59

Post by Anechoic »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #46
efraim wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sound waves and radio waves are not the same thing.

They're not the same things, no, but they obey the same wave mechanics, and due to the difference in propagation velocity, their wavelengths are actually very close. A wavelength of 3 meters is about 100 MHz in the RF world, and 1 kHz in audio terms. That's why an RF anechoic chamber looks a lot like an acoustical anechoic chamber, and often sounds like one too.

A wavelength of 3 meters is about 100 MHz in the RF world, and 1 kHz in audio terms.

An acoustic wavelength at STP is around 1ft/30cm, not 3m (which is closer to 100 Hz).

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#60

Post by jaylevitt »

jff wrote: post #56
its_so_on wrote: post #37

I don't get why people can't spend more than 45 minutes in there. I understand that you begin to hear your heartbeat and so on, but surely anyone who is even slightly deaf (e.g. even from just prolonged listening to loud music) wouldn't hear these very low-decibel sounds? So it can't be the lack of sound, as a slightly hard of hearing person hears the noise floor drop out quite frequently. (Correct me if I'm wrong he…

Well, I've got access... I could take a book and go sit in our anechoic chamber for an hour, I guess. If I decide to try it, I'll report back.

And if you don't report back, we'll still have a data point..
Post reply on HN