Noise and sound are similar. The big difference is that noise is considered unwanted or unpleasant sound. This has come to my attention recently with the loud music in the gym at the Y. Music is an important component of exercise - it sets the tempo with the beats per minute. Kenny, the Total Fit instructor was telling me all the BPMs for the various types of exercise - cycle fit, muscle fit, cardio, etc.
It is the loudness factor that has my attention. That's where the sound heads into noise territory for me. So I got a decibel app to find out if things were really loud or if I had hearing sensitivities. The conclusion is that the sound is loud in the gym. The app says that over 80 decibels is concerning.
It got me thinking about all the kinds of sound there are - and let's just look at the sounds that the human body makes. I found a picture chart for some of them. Is drool a sound?
The article covers well over 100 of these sorts of things - it is HERE. We can make a lot of sounds, so there's likely a subsequent chart for which are unpleasant. If drool is a sound, I vote that drool is unpleasant.
And then the human voice can produce 500 different consonant sounds and 200 vowel sounds. Take English, it uses only 24 consonant themes and 15 vowel phonemes.
I seem to think that we take most of this for granted. We have geared our education towards the thinking end of things and mostly ignore sound except for music.
The Guinness Book of Records has the longest continuous held note (more than 2 minutes), the loudest scream, the lowest vocal note by a female.The loudest burp (109 decibels) compares to the loudest snore, which is not quite as loud at 93 decibels. There we are again, back to measuring the decibels of sounds.
This is a HDR rendering - you can see the Photomatix imprint - I was trialling it yesterday after deciding that I would like more HDR images. Some time ago Photomatix got lost from my Photoshop plugins with an upgrade. I was using another software plugin to do HDR type images. But that plug in is now gone too, so Photomatix needs to get reinstalled.
The result is a happy engineer at Strasburg showcasing the grime on his overalls!
The air flow from the furnace was making interesting noises this morning - perhaps it was as it was travelling through the ducts. I went to the practical to find out what the sound might be and what might cause it - I checked out an HVAC site.
"If your furnace is whistling, one possible cause is that there may be gaps in the duct. You should try to hear exactly where the whistle is coming from. Often, it will be from a small hole near the connecting point between the duct and the furnace close to the blower.
Especially if the whistling has started recently, you may have a clogged filter, causing the fan to suck air from anywhere it can. Even tiny holes or spaces will generate a whistle if any significant air is being sucked through them. To test out this possibility, pull the filter out and see if the whistling stops.
If your filter is so caked with dirt that it is clogged and stopping the air flow, you will be better off taking the filter out (while arranging to purchase a new one). This is better not just to reduce the noise, but also to reduce the wear and tear on your fan motor.
Another possible cause for whistling would be that the ducts are too small. The furnace may need greater air flow, and thus larger ducts."
But would I call the sound whistling? I don't think so. Another site on air conditioning said: "If unusual noises are coming from the air registers (the vents where the conditioned air is blown into a room), ductwork should be inspected. Loose or ill-fitting ducts, as well as debris in the ductwork, may reverberate or echo sounds through the registers into living spaces."
I happened upon a website that creates sounds with a noise generator. They say that "the sound of wind is considered one of the most relaxing sounds in existence. This sound alone eases away stress and makes everything outside look more calm and quiet. The sound of wind is great for helping one to fall asleep and for covering background noises. Wind noise is a natural source of white noise. "
I heard their howling wind - and it isn't relaxing. Perhaps I should have tried desert wind, meadow land or palm garden.
You can listen to the wind at https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/windNoiseGenerator.php. There are these types: wheat fields, autumn wind, stormy weather, home alone, deserted barn, trade winds and surprise! At the home page there's Irish Coast, Rain on a tent, Japanese garden, 88 keys, twin black lodges, gregorian chant, waterfall and cafe restaurant. That last one is likely what we would be interested in right now.
After that my research found physics and wave properties. I am still wondering what the names are for different sounds.
Today's leaves are from the Versicolour Japanese Maple in the back garden.
