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Mythbusters disprove "Brown Note Theory"!


Islander

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I don't know if this is old news to you, but I just finished reading the article, so it's news to me. The experiment used some serious subwoofage, but the results were negative.

An excerpt from the Wiki entry:

"Television show MythBusters used twelve Meyer Sound 700-HP subwoofers—a model and quantity that has been employed for major rock concerts.[1] Normal operating frequency range of the selected subwoofer model was 28 Hz to 150 Hz[2] but the 12 enclosures at MythBusters had been specially modified for deeper bass extension.[3] Roger Schwenke and John Meyer directed the Meyer Sound team in devising a special test rig that would produce very high sound levels at infrasonic frequencies. The subwoofers' tuning ports were blocked and their input cards were altered. The modified cabinets were positioned in an open ring configuration: four stacks of three subwoofers each. Test signals were generated by a SIM 3 audio analyzer, with software modified to produce infrasonic tones. A Brüel & Kjær sound level analyzer, fed with an attenuated signal from a model 4189 measurement microphone, displayed and recorded sound pressure levels.[3] The experimenters on the show tried a series of frequencies as low as 5 Hz, attaining a level of 120 decibels of sound pressure at 9 Hz and up to 153 dB at frequencies above 20 Hz, but the rumored physiological effects did not materialize."

Here's the complete article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note

EDIT: to be accurate, if the idea was proven to be false, that means it didn't reach the status of a theory, but was only a hypothesis. In any case, it's good to know that even the most extreme subwoofage will not cause embarrassing accidents.

Edited by Islander
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Kate Bush... sound that can kill.

Gotta agree with that....She's awful! Did you have this in mind when you posted, or is this coincidental?

"Experiment IV".....A song by Kate Bush........The song tells a story about a secret military plan to create a sound that is horrific enough to kill people. The ending of the story is unclear, but in the music video nearly every person working on the project is killed by the horrific sound, which is personified by Bush herself as she changed from an angelic woman into a banshee (a horrifying screaming apparition of Irish lore).

Edited by oldenough
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Kate Bush... sound that can kill.

That's not really fair. Some of her music is pretty odd, but she has lots of really good songs, or she would not have sold millions of records.

Anyway, here's a humorous one she did with Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean):

Kate Bush & Rowan Atkinson - Do Bears... : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LswKizinfJY

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Kate Bush... sound that can kill.

That's not really fair. Some of her music is pretty odd, but she has lots of really good songs, or she would not have sold millions of records.

Yeah nothing wrong with her songs, just her singing them...

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