If you know how noise-cancelling headphones work, you may have wondered whether the same kind of technical trick — producing your own vibrations that exactly cancel out the “noise” vibrations — might somehow work with smells. Twin-brother scientists Kush and Lav Varshney spent some time noodling on that notion. (Thanks to Martin Gardiner for telling me about the […]
Tag: Acoustics
Reducing Toilet Flush Noise in Adjacent Offices
The science of acoustics offers many challenges, some of which relate to toilets. For example: “An experience reducing toilet flushing noise reaching adjacent offices,” Noral D. Stewart [pictured here] (Stewart Acoustical Consultants, Raleigh, NC), Acoustical Society of America – 161st Meeting Lay Language Papers, Presented Thursday afternoon, May 26, 2011, 161st ASA Meeting, Seattle, Washington, […]
Acoustical delight: The sound of coffee roasting
Many scientists having probed the smell of coffee, one, at least, is probing its sound. He has published a study about it: “Coffee Roasting Acoustics,” Preston S. Wilson [pictured here], Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 135, no. 6, 2014. (Thanks to investigator Daniela Müller for bringing this to our attention.) The author, […]
The spectra in the ring in the voice of the child solo singers
Some scientific papers seem meant—because of their topic—to be sung aloud, if only the wording were adjusted to make them easier to sing. Here’s one such study: “‘Ring’ in the Solo Child Singing Voice,” David M. Howard, Jenevora Williams [pictured here], Christian T. Herbst, Journal of Voice, epub November 11, 2013. The authors, at the […]