After midnight last night I started three simultaneous and long email conversations with three different good friends, one of whom I hadn't spoken to for about 15 years. This was so stimulating that I didn't get to sleep until about 7 am. And then I woke up before noon and had to handle some biz. So by mid-afternoon, I was pretty cooked.
So just as I was eating a bi' o' cereal and watching season one DVDs of Third Rock From The Sun, winding down to go to sleep again, an infernal noise started. I'm not kidding, I could not hear what they said on the TV!
It turned out to be my downstairs neighbor who is getting central heating, and he was drilling a big hole through his kitchen wall. He was through the inner wall of brick, but it turns out that the outer wall of brick is very, very hard, amazing though that is for this building.
I'd no choice though, I had to sleep, so I closed all the windows fully and all the inner doors, hoping that would dampen the noise when he started again. But when he started again, it was clear that he was now drilling in the wall just under my bedroom. Or that was what I believed: it turned out later that the noise was simple so loud and transferred so well through all the walls in the building that it sounded like it was right on top of me! I can't believe how loud that was.
The funny thing is that I actually got better rest anyway than I would have if the upstairs' neighbor's dang clock radio had been going! Innat weird? (I have bought a small alarm clock for him now, which turns off after two minutes...)
I should add that these things are exceptional, normally I'm snug as a bug in a rug where I am. (Also "smug as a bug in a rug" as Peppermint Patty put it.)
20 comments:
Low frequency vibrations travel amazingly well through solids, especially hard solids.
Earthquakes are basically little more than high amplitude very low frequency vibrations moving through the Earth crust. Infrasounds. No wonder they send elephants into a panic before any human has the slightest clue...
Though I've seldom heard of an earthquake that can rattle your tooth fillings. :-)
Had some construction work in my house a few weeks ago. It ALWAYS seems like they're drilling/hammering right outside whatever wall you're closest to. Making you feel an urgent need to come out of the closest!!!
Eolake said...
"...I have bought a small alarm clock for him now, which turns off after two minutes..."
How thoughtful of you! lol! ;-)
Glad you had a good sleep, though! Sure didn't sound like your everyday *white* noise, either! ;0(
Trying to apply a white-noise MP3 to this situation would have been like trying to warm up the ocean by pissing in it.
You got a tactful way of telling your neighba "I can sleep, but you gotta hit the road", hehehe!
Yeah such alarms in the neighborhood do suck.
As to noise transfer including infra sound of earthy quakes, we also need (to) factor in the resonance of the building, right?
Here, I was astonished to notice a neighbor was hammering his walls in a completely different and far-away corner of the building, while I thought it was happening just next door. Strange, yeah.
I hate my alarm clock. :( But I've learned not to use the radio function because I can sleep through it unless it's loud enough to wake up the neighbors. As it is, I hit the sleep every time I can, so it goes off at 5:30 and I get up at 6:30. It's sitting in a chair, hopefully that absorbs most of it, but I don't dare go ask my neighbors if it's a problem... any good advice from someone who does find it a problem?
Sounds to me like you need to go to bed earlier.
Doesn't matter what time I go to bed, I just have an incredible hatred of getting up. If I have it my way, I wake up at about 10:00 and it takes me about 30 min... and then I'm cheerful, too. :)
Yes, that's what I do.
Except my sleep schedule is so unpredictable it does not even deserve the word "schedule".
"a neighbor was hammering his walls in a completely different and far-away corner of the building, while I thought it was happening just next door."
This is why even the most expensive stereophonic systems don't bother with more than one speaker for low frequencies. Once the wavelength becomes superior to the distance between the ears, there's no way to detect the direction of a sound anyway. Because there's no detectable lag.
Hammering, like most shocks, comprises a component of infrasounds, and of barely audible frequencies. Even the lowest ones we hear clearly (around 10-20 Hz) are outside the wavelengths that one can localize.
(Let's see, a quick calculation... Head width about 20 cm, sound speed around 330 m/s... that's 1,650 Hz if I'm not mistaken. But can vary slightly with atmospheric conditions that change the speed of sound.)
Add to that the fact that low frequencies resonate through the entire structure, propagating within solids much faster than through air, and you'll have the unavoidable recipe for a sound which you always feel like you're in the very heart of. Maybe you'll feel like it's coming frm the nearest wall because in that direction, although there's no frequency difference, it's a little stronger in intensity.
Extremely misleading.
So, if you hear a worrying low-pitched ruckus while in a Manhattan skyscraper, don't waste precious time trying to spot its origin, immediately head for the nearest exit. Before the next 747 comes crashing in with a barely audible yell of "Allah akbar!".
A few side notes:
- Deaf people, even completely deaf, can react to bangs. The low-spectrum frequencies are not solely detected by the ears, there's air pressure on skin, shockwaves resonating inside the body... If you've ever been to a "modern" party with loud music you know that human guts can hear the beat. "Shake it baby, yeah, mojo! Shall we shag, Miss Fagina?"
- Elephants communicate with infrasounds, which can travel huge distances. Same with whales, at several hundred (thousand?) kilometres. And they're able to know the direction. Because their bodies are much bigger. More distance between the ears, and perception with other parts of the body. (Picture the distance between an elephant's FEET, which are incredibly sensitive to pressure.)
And some people will still talk about the "mystery" of beached cetaceans! How would YOU feel if another species was filling your environment with constant deafening explosions used as sonar signals? They flee the waters in DESPAIR, to escape the torture!
But, since most of these sonars are military, it's hush-hush, and screw a few air-breathing fishoid critters.
:-(
Never new about the head-width thing, that's kewl.
Well, I guess if you have a big head you'll hear the low-pitched whispers of critics in your back way better...
That explains why I can predict earthquakes.
Ever wondered why the lenses of binoculars are so wide apart, making the device cumbersome? Instead of, say, being both on top? It's to compensate for the loss of stereoscopic vision with the zoom effect. At moderate zoom, for the closest objects.
Space telescopes are often used in groups of distant elements (sometimes 100m, sometimes on both sides of the planet, sometimes orbiting on opposite sides of the sun) in order to better discriminate very distant images.
"Perspective is all about taking distance." (Another of my patented Zoolanderish obviousisms)
My verif : "sizess"
Big Brother is scoping you!!!
The binoculars I had figured out. I've been thinking about visuals and optics all my life.
Pascal, I find your comments regarding the ways of sound very interesting and informative.
Never've taken ear distance into consideration, but yes, it's the same as with the distance between our eyes, which makes us view the three dimensions better.
You must be an astute man.
;-)
Astute? I think the right word is "modest".
And charming. And witty. And handsome. And generous. And sensitive. And brave. And strong. And tasteful. And discerning. And wise. And educated. And literate. And cultivated. And sharing. And noble. And articulate. And sincere. And broad-sighted. And well-dressed. And with nice hair. And a man of vision. And intuitive. And insightful. And kind to animals. And charismatic. And strong-willed. And considerate. And endurant. And resilient. And funny. And dashing. And lucky. And honest. And reliable. And caring. And romantic. And affectionate. And to the point. And full of qualities. And I smell good.
But essentially? Modest. That's me.
Oh, and it also helps that acoustics notions were part of our ENR courses. But shhh! Let a magician keep his secrets, well, a secret.
Initially I was about to write "smart". But somehow I ended up writing "astute".
Now, LONGMAN says: astute = able to understand situations or behaviour very well and very quickly, especially so that you can get an advantage for yourself.
I wanted to express what's said before the comma. I don't think that the part after the comma applies to our doctor.
Thus, "smart" is the better word.
In any case: u r a "valued" person.
The doctor would rather be astute, than on the wrong side of a coma. :-)
"Ka-ching-pow!"
Eolake said...
"I've been thinking about visuals and optics all my life."
What next, you're gonna tell us you've been observing ideas an thoughts all your life?
:o)
I thought everybody has. What else to do?
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