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Passing planes and other whoosh sounds

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207 points zdw | 1 comments | 17 Apr 25 05:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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albert_e ◴[17 Apr 25 11:25 UTC] No.43715256[source]▶
Tangentially related

I once picked up my memory foam mattress and stood it up against one of the walls ... for cleaning the bed or whatever.

As I walked past the mattress I instantly noticed that the mattress is such a good absorber of audio waves that I could immediately notice a dip in ambient sound in the ear facing the mattress.

The room was already "silent" and this newly discovered lower limit of silence was pretty surprising to me physiologically.

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meindnoch ◴[17 Apr 25 12:34 UTC] No.43715878[source]▶
Everyone should try a real anechoic chamber once. The silence there is deafening.
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larusso ◴[17 Apr 25 13:07 UTC] No.43716246[source]▶
Don‘t know if this is the same but I went to Death Valley on the Devil‘s Golf Course during summer. There was no wind no nothing. It was so damn silent. Wonder how that compares to an anechoic chamber now.
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1. 0_____0 ◴[17 Apr 25 15:32 UTC] No.43718337[source]▶
Having experienced both, it's very similar.

Edit to add: I've been in an anechoic chamber and also the black rock desert, which is dead flat and thus has very little surface area oriented to reflect sound back at the listener, which makes it similar in that you don't experience environmental reflections.

Devil's Golf Course has more "texture" to it but if you were quiet on a windless day I think the effect would be similar.