[sdiy] The eardrum and brownian motion

[Tim Ressel]

Yo,

--- Chris Stecker <cstecker at umich.edu> wrote:
> Tim's post, however, seemed to refer to acoustically
> "dead" rooms "freaking 
> [him] out," not just quiet rooms causing him to be
> aware of physiological 
> noise.  Care to elaborate? 

Of course. After spending several minutes in the
acoustic chamber, one of the techs started looking
nervous and pale. We all exited the chamber and took a
break. The tech looked better, so we went back into
the chamber. Almost instantly he freaked and took off.
We had the chamber checked for hazards; none were
found. 

A couple of days later I was in the same chamber
rigging a test. I was waiting patiently for some
equipment to start up when I started feeling wierd,
almost dizzy. After that I took a fan in with me,
thinking the air flow would help. The fan helped, so I
forgot about it. Perhaps it was the noise?

Here's a notion I have had for a while. The ear can
tell the shape of the room just by the ambient noise.
You can tell is you're in a cave just by the sound.
Perhaps this is a leftover survival trait? Kinda like
bat echo-location? If so, then ambient noise levels
would affect the ear's ability to do this, and lack of
noise would disable it completly.

--TR


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