Is there really a Sound that Kills?

[Frelling_Tralk]

I seem to remember Brainiac (a UK show a bit like Mythbusters but not as kewl) playing “brown noise” that was supposed to make your bowel evacuate - they warned you first - I turned the sound off just in case (cite above example) apparently it did work and some people had to make a run for the loo

That’s interesting; I remember Mythbusters doing the same test and finding no brown note among the various tones they tested.

[danceswithcats]

A woman related the story of shagging a fellow up in his bedroom, when suddenly from down below in the foyer came the sound, “Honey, I’m home.” Poor SOB dropped dead of a heart attack right there. :eek:

The answer is yes.

[Chronos]

Quoth glee:

I thought we were supposed to be fighting ignorance?

ANY noise includes a whisper. But it’s not loud enough.

Do you mean that any noise that kills you is loud enough and close enough?

A whisper, if it were loud enough, would kill. The fact that most whispers aren’t loud enough does not invalidate this fact.

Quoth Jackknifed Juggernaut:

Based on the responses so far, it appears that it’s not the sound that kills, it’s the movement of air.

What do you think a sound is, besides movement of air?

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

@Chronos

What do you think a sound is, besides movement of air?

Perhaps I misunderstood the spirit of the question, but I thought that the question was about death possibly being caused by the sensory overload from a loud sound. Thus, it would be impossible for a deaf person to die this way because he can’t hear it.

[NicePete]

A sound that kills? Of course there is. Just read this to a German speaker:

Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja!..
Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

[constanze]

@NicePete

A sound that kills? Of course there is. Just read this to a German speaker:

Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja!..
Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

AAAhhhh… Dies laughing

[Chez_Guevara]

According to the Iliad, Stentor died in a shouting contest with Hermes.

Now I suppose someone will tell me that’s a myth as well.

[constanze]

But didn’t Stentor die from exhaustion, instead of the loudness of sound?

[Epimetheus]

@gotpasswords

The Mythbusters caused structural damage to a car made of steel with around 160 dB. I have no difficulty at all in believing that a soft and squishy human can be physically damaged by sufficiently loud sound.

Eh, if you call having the sunroof pop off its track as structural damage. The myth was busted on that episode. High decibals can’t make a car explode, high decibles didn’t even break the windows.

[Chez_Guevara]

@constanze

But didn’t Stentor die from exhaustion, instead of the loudness of sound?

He did, but that rather invalidates my post.

[glee]

@Chronos

Quoth glee:A whisper, if it were loud enough, would kill. The fact that most whispers aren’t loud enough does not invalidate this fact.

My point was that saying ‘any sound can kill you if it’s loud enough and close enough’ does not provide any information.
‘Anything that kills you can kill you’ is not helpful.

I don’t want to make too much of it, but are you serious that a whisper can kill?
Given that a whisper is ‘barely audible’ or ‘a very soft sound without vibrating the vocal cords’, how would you die?

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

@Lobelia Overhill

I seem to remember Brainiac (a UK show a bit like Mythbusters but not as kewl) playing “brown noise” that was supposed to make your bowel evacuate - apparently it did work and some people had to make a run for the loo

I wouldn’t take anything on Brainiac too seriously. For example that epidode is called Brown Noise.

Brown Noise is something completely different.

[Beware_of_Doug]

@Will Repair

Another list.

Now that is Kook Science at its best. Crazily wide-ranging, sketchily referenced, and single-spaced.

Still, it’s handy knowing that a Formula 1 race car can be heard 6 miles away on a calm morning.

[SlickRoenick]

@commasense

Do you suppose that it’s just a coincidence that Cecil cites the 200 dB figure and then the same number appears on Mythbusters, whose newest researcher is our own Q.E.D.? Even if Q.E.D. was not directly responsible (chances are that episode was produced before he started with them), it’s obvious that the MB research staff reads SD.

When did Q.E.D. start doing that?