Anechoic Chamber: The Quietest Places On Earth
Ready to learn a little about the quietest places on earth? This is so quiet that people are unable to spend extended periods of time in them without going insane, literally.
What does Anechoic mean?
Anechoic means non-reflective and echo free. An Anechoic Chamber completely absorbs echoes, reflections of electromagnetic and/or sound waves.
The foam absorbs everything. These rooms are used to measure the amount of sound that comes from things as small as phone processors, and much more. The background noise average measurement is -9.4 dBA. It's hard to comprehend a room with negative noise, but this is it.
The Human Side
The human ear can detect sounds above 0dBA. This makes people in such a chamber perceive the surroundings as devoid of sound. More terrifying than it would seem.
Human ears adjust to surroundings. This is how people can hear each other at clubs with loud music and still talk. When the background noise is negative human ears start to look for sounds to attach to. People often begin to hear their heartbeats, lungs, stomach gurgling, blood in the neck and brain, etc. This is where it gets so intense that those sound "loud." Often people lose sense of balance, and have inability to stand or orient themselves since their ears don't have reflections to help figure out where they are.
"If you are there for 30 minutes, you have to have a chair."
Possibly the longest time anyone has spent in the chamber closed and alone was around 45 minutes. Not that long after all!
NASA
NASA actually uses these chambers to help astronauts adjust to the silence they might experience in space.
Steemians! Would you guys go into the chamber? How long do you think you could last? Please share your thoughts, upvote, follow! Thanks for reading/watching.
Thank you for posting this lovely moment in time for you. Followed...
Hey very nice.. i want to connect with you. How to connect..
Thanks! feel free to email [email protected] @indiantraveller
I would really like to try out staying in a room like that. Though I have no idea how long I would be able stay there but I guess I'd go for the record :D
@celestal, there might be a place in your city to see it! there are a few in NYC!
I highly doubt there's any near where I live but if I somehow ever happen to be at NYC I'm going to find one.
I'm gonna make one of these rooms and paint it in Vantablack. I should be insane by next weekend.
Probably would at least reinvent vertigo. Or you would fall into enlightenment! @bwar
I heard about the chamber a few years ago and I swear to God I had nightmares about it, imagine being able to hear your own body functions! And imagine playing the guitar in there, huh?
Great post! Upvote!
Guitar in there would be so dry probably! I can't imagine. It's like a black hole but instead of sucking light, it would suck all of the sound out of the guitar. Is there a chamber near you? @agsttne
well, actually no ... the speed of sound .. from Guitar to your ears, and the distance to the absorbing materials = different, so you would hear it as usual, just not the "echos" as in a normal room .. make sense ?
Nice post, thanks for the memories !
I have been in recording studios that use this technology, it is an amazing experience ! I remember dropping a screwdriver and it literally freaked me out at how loud it was. Later of course, one of the engineers said that they usually have music playing in there if anyone was in there working because "weird sht" happens to you if you don't, and I should always have some music playing if I was working in the recording rooms ...
Wow! @jstreetman, I would think it's not an ideal setup for recording studios. Some reverb is good!
ALL studios use it .. reverb is through amp or mixer, its an effect, using echo is bad for recording and music... (Actually that what your referring to), echo = bad, UNLESS your making a special recording, but nowadays echo or reverb is an effect used through amps or when mixing
Anechoic Chamber are Echo Proof rooms, (sound absortion rooms ..) to eliminate noise from echo
The quietest place outside of an anechoic chamber? According to Gordon Hempton and John Grossmann in their book One Square Inch of Silence: One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World America’s most naturally quiet place is in Olympic National Park in Washington State. They say "natural silence is our nation’s fastest-disappearing resource." And I believe it.
That's amazing. I grew up in Seattle, WA and have spent SO MUCH TIME in the Olympic National Park. It's definitely absolutely quiet most times of the year. So much so that you hear the freeway from miles away and when a car drives by it makes you think about why it's there. Very different than in the city! @kenfinkel
Glad to be able to add to your understanding of a place you already know @playitforward. I've never been to Olympic National Park, but hope to visit someday. Meanwhile, there's always the foam chambers...
Oh man, I'm the kind of person that needs quite and I'm constantly seeking it out, but I think this would be even too much for me!
I think so too! At least for a certain amount of time. Generally when people mean they like quiet, they like low ambience and nothing jarring! @rorymerrick. I do like quiet as well.
I went into a small version of one at University once, it was such an odd experience. Great post!
Thats pretty awesome