Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a blogpost I read a few years back written by someone who damaged their hearing after dropping a porcelain toilet lid. They actually ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the decibel level, I recall it being shockingly high.
Porcelain toilet lids and the metal plates on weightlifting machines are among the most dangerous common objects when it comes to hearing damage. I've heard of cases where the plates on the machine were stuck together with grease and the user had selected a much lighter weight than usual. A number of plates below the linchpin were all the way up by the bonds of the grease before slipping and falling back down. The me…
Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
81–90 of 263 posts
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#82I wish fire alarms did this for half a second before blasting your tympanic membrane with an ear-splitting noise. Residential ones are bad enough, but the ones in offices are the worst.
That office building alarms are worse is all the more annoying since they theoretically shouldn't need to wake people from sleep.
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a pretty good HN comment thread about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16723099 From the linked thread: """ 5. The stupid toilet bowl lid only fell about 8 inches. How could it damage my hearing so badly? I looked up the speed of sound in ceramic, divided by the length of the toilet bowl lid (and divided by 2 since the fundamental vibration is a half wavelength). This predicts 3.5 kHz. 6. This frequ…
Be careful dropping glass bottles into recycling bins too; they pose nearly the same problem - they don't usually shatter and the sound escapes the bin upwards towards you.
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve taken up wearing earplugs while driving. I also work in a noisy environment, and it occurs to me that the road and engine and wind noise is probably loud enough to have a negative impact on hearing over time. Less so in newer cars, but both mine are over 10yo. Also, in the event of a collision I’m protected.
At least in most of the usa, wearing earplugs (or earbuds, headphones, etc) while operating a car, is illegal. Please check with your local PD to be safe. You may just be putting yourself and others at higher risk by attinuating your situational awareness.
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. Not having looked at any data, I’m now wondering why most taxis in Germany are, and have been for a long time, mostly Mercedes? (Commonly their E class.) Are they just cheaper to buy for that purpose or what’s the reason?
I've heard that German luxury cars (what we consider them here in the USA) are more like what we think of Fords here; so common and normal, considered affordable. Or maybe just not "high end" due to being common? Again, though, only heard that - nothing to back it up. It also may be that because Mercedes and BMWs are "local brand" vehicles, there are more of them, and more mechanics out there able to service them? Wh…
That's been true for taxis in the US for a long time --- which are usually full-size Chevrolets and Fords. They're also much roomier and thus give a more comfortable ride than the average import econobox, with extra capacity for luggage.
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#86I'm guessing an engineer named it the German equivalent of "pre-crash" sound, then someone in marketing decided that "pre-safe" sounds better. It may be better to call it "foreplay" sound, since if you ever hear it you're probably screwed.
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a blogpost I read a few years back written by someone who damaged their hearing after dropping a porcelain toilet lid. They actually ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the decibel level, I recall it being shockingly high.
Porcelain toilet lids and the metal plates on weightlifting machines are among the most dangerous common objects when it comes to hearing damage. I've heard of cases where the plates on the machine were stuck together with grease and the user had selected a much lighter weight than usual. A number of plates below the linchpin were all the way up by the bonds of the grease before slipping and falling back down. The me…
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Porcelain toilet lids and the metal plates on weightlifting machines are among the most dangerous common objects when it comes to hearing damage. I've heard of cases where the plates on the machine were stuck together with grease and the user had selected a much lighter weight than usual. A number of plates below the linchpin were all the way up by the bonds of the grease before slipping and falling back down. The me…
fragsworth mentions being the victim of exactly this issue with weightlifting machines ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16723769 ) in the post linked by coke12 ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20700966 ).
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a pretty good HN comment thread about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16723099 From the linked thread: """ 5. The stupid toilet bowl lid only fell about 8 inches. How could it damage my hearing so badly? I looked up the speed of sound in ceramic, divided by the length of the toilet bowl lid (and divided by 2 since the fundamental vibration is a half wavelength). This predicts 3.5 kHz. 6. This frequ…
Be careful dropping glass bottles into recycling bins too; they pose nearly the same problem - they don't usually shatter and the sound escapes the bin upwards towards you.
Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound
#90I wish fire alarms did this for half a second before blasting your tympanic membrane with an ear-splitting noise. Residential ones are bad enough, but the ones in offices are the worst.
That's a good idea! I bet if someone were to develop a residential smoke detector that did that it would sell well. (Especially if it had other compelling features like a 10-year battery.)