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Subject:
How can you stop sound waves
Category: Science > Physics Asked by: chunkylover1234-ga List Price: $10.00 |
Posted:
10 Oct 2004 04:30 PDT
Expires: 12 Oct 2004 20:03 PDT Question ID: 412747 |
is it possible to stop loud sound waves from passing inbetween 2 points by using. eg a small square size wall without having anything in there like glass. just air. i have already thought of a vacum but that wont work cause its not stationary. then i thought of silent sound waves that some how override the louder ones. but i also need to know what type of thing can make this happen between 2 points? eg.im stood in a room where someone else is on the other side. theres nothing between us. can i stop him from talking to me so i can see him talking but cant hear him. then if i step to his side of the room, will be able to hear him. |
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There is no answer at this time. |
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Subject:
Re: How can you stop sound waves
From: probonopublico-ga on 10 Oct 2004 05:09 PDT |
Earmuffs are the most practical. |
Subject:
Re: How can you stop sound waves
From: frde-ga on 10 Oct 2004 05:24 PDT |
You are talking about 'counter balancing' soundwaves. |
Subject:
Re: How can you stop sound waves
From: guzzi-ga on 10 Oct 2004 17:19 PDT |
Answer is basically no, but a small yes. There have been many attempts to cancel noise by detecting the sound and generating an anti-phase signal to coincide at the listening point. Great in simple theory but dumb in practice. Problems are manifest and it can only work at one specific position because at all other places the sounds add. You can?t ?cancel? sound, the energy is still there unless it is absorbed. Moreover, a surprising amount of the sound comes from reflections, so what ends up at someone?s ears is dynamic and under most conditions is impossible to characterise. There?s also the problem of the microphone (which detects the noise) picking up its own anti-phase signal and howling. Semi success has been achieved in airline aimed experiments whereby cancellation takes place on the headrest at each side of the passenger. Trouble is that it makes it even noisier for everyone else and moving your head screws it up. The other big experiment was undertaken for the military, attempting to reduce the cabin noise in helicopters. They used multi-phase plates driven by simple transducers and surprisingly (not at all!) the noise actually worsened. Any competent engineer could have saved them a fortune by explaining basic principals of superposition. These experiments gave rise to the new crop of flat speakers, much vaunted and pretty useless. Doesn?t seem to have been an impediment to sales though. Only way that comes to mind is with a fast air stream -- *very* fast. Bit impractical and in itself very noisy. Or you may have noticed the sound deadening effect of heavy fog or a steamy bathroom. That?s an illustration of absorption but not a lot of help either. If anything else occurs to me I?ll add to this. Best |
Subject:
Re: How can you stop sound waves
From: chunkylover1234-ga on 11 Oct 2004 18:11 PDT |
lol earmuffs. just to clarify( wish i could draw a pic) imagine the room cut in half by an invisable wave thats stoping all sound move to the other side. so that if you stand on one side you can hear yourself but cant hear your friend on the other, but if you cross over you can hear him speakas he will you. I know that there has been an experiment done in a night club once where the people who sat in this booth (that was open top aswell, not enclosed) could talk to each other. but when they steped out they could hear all the load misic that they couldnt inside. I seen this on i think tommorrows world ages ago(long time, or maybe discovery channel lol, cant remember) it had something to do with where this light was aimed. quite amazing but i cant find anything on it or how it worked. thanks |
Subject:
Re: How can you stop sound waves
From: guzzi-ga on 12 Oct 2004 16:47 PDT |
I think what you saw on ?Discovery? was a sound absorbent booth. This harks to what I said about sound level being composed to a surprising degree upon reflections. If you enter a semi-enclosed space with highly absorbent walls, the sound level plummets. Anechoic chambers are disturbingly weird to experience. Best |
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