Quietest place on Earth.

Apparently, Guinness didn't visit Marcel Marceau's house.

Marcel-Marceau.jpg

It looks like Marcel lets his britches do the talkin'.
Should I be worried that I noticed that?
 
The inside of any good vacuum chamber on Earth, such as those used in the labs, probably has a lower noise level, as sound does not find a material medium to propagate in. So, I guess that the Guiness record is restricted to places with air.
 
Radiolab did a great podcast about that place. Highly recommended, if you like podcasts. And if you like podcasts, you probably already listen to Radiolab.
 
The inside of any good vacuum chamber on Earth, such as those used in the labs, probably has a lower noise level, as sound does not find a material medium to propagate in. So, I guess that the Guiness record is restricted to places with air.

One would think that since there is no sound in a vacuum, it cannot be 'quiet' there, or 'loud'.
 
The anechoic chamber in Microsoft's Audio Lab was awarded the Guinness World Record for the quietest place on earth in 2015. The chamber is in Building 87 on Microsoft's Redmond, WA campus.


OK, so just how quiet is it? I would assume it would be less than 0 dBA.

Nevermind, I found it. -20.6 dB.

My noise meter only goes down to about 17 dB (was special order) and I rarely see levels under ~30 dB sitting in my living room. So, the ambient sound level power in the lab is about 1/100,000th of the that in my living room.
 
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Yup, its quite.

It sucks the noise right out of you.

Hearing someone talk in there is weird. It becomes a point source. The stereoscopic effect of hearing makes it pin point locatable.

The guide stuck his head into the baffles and spoke to show what sound actually travels around your head (because everything forward gets absorbed). That was cool. His voice sound dropped about 80%.
 
I entered one at the Ontario Science Center back in the 70's. Set up like a fun house as you walk down the hallway...step in here. The contrast from outside was so startling as to conjure a sense of danger. Weird.

Btw, I drove a 74 Monarch, in 1985. Some lady passed me in a 15 mph park yelling "get that piece of shit off the road".

And it was in good shape, no rust! What's not to like?:)
 
One would think that since there is no sound in a vacuum, it cannot be 'quiet' there, or 'loud'.

Do you enjoy humor? :)

BTW, how do you measure sound? With a microphone or similar device. If you perform the test in vacuum, the output signal would be zero (within electronic noise levels). Therefore, the minumum attainable level with a given standard test.
 
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I've never been in an anechoic chamber, but the experience sounds remarkably similar to spelunking. If you go far enough into a cave, and hold as still as you can, the extreme quiet turns deafening in short order.
 
That would be a great psych experiment! Put individuals in there and tell them that at some random point you will start playing a sounds at random low volume levels but don't actually play any sounds. Have them indicate at which points they think they can hear it start at stop.

That sounds like the standard hearing test. Soundproof room, headphones and button.
 
There feels like an air pressure change once you enter.
My guide asked if I noticed it.
I am not sure they do that or if its a perceived effect.

There might be something to that. At a lab I worked in about 20 years ago, the main lab was about 20x40x16, and despite the reflective walls and surfaces, it was so much quieter than any lab I'd worked in before or since. You didn't have to raise your voice to talk to someone across the room, or even turn up the stereo much at all to fill the space. It's as if the 3 or 4 fume hoods sucked out all the errant sound along with all the solvent vapors.

We have a couple of semi-anechoic chambers at work for our acoustic testing - i've found it so odd to have a conversation in there that it's distracting and difficult to keep my thoughts straight.

For work I've experienced the exact opposite. A few times I've got to enter large above-ground steel water reservoirs while they were empty for cleaning and inspection. These reservoirs might be 150' diameter and 60' tall. When walking from the entry hatch at the side, talking to the person right next to you is nearly unintelligible due to the reflections from all different directions returning at different times. And echos seem to last forever. I remember trying to stand at the exact center to see if all the reflection times could even-out, but I don't remember how it worked.

Next time I'll record it.
 
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