[11001011]

Did anyone else see the Myth Busters last night do their test on the "brown note".


They decided the myth was busted but I think they did it wrong.


They had a guy standing in the middle of a semicircle of speakers and played several very low frequency tones (down to 4Hz) at very high power to try and make the guy poop himself.


I noticed that the guy in the middle of the speakers felt nothing but the people further away felt some physiological effects.


Could it be their test was flawed? Due the the physical size of a standing wave at that frequency range the test subject was just too close?


What does everyone think?

 

[tvtech1]

Quote:

Could it be their test was flawed?

After seeing the microwave oven episode, these guys don't really know tech. very well...their methods are dubious.

 

[scooter_29]

While I didn't see the episode... it also quite easily could have been a standing wave issue.

 

[help-r-monkey]

I have been watching thier program from the beginning and several of thier experiments have had major flaws and/or bad assumptions.

 

[Bryan G.]

I have always enjoyed the ability of something like snoops or myth busters to provide definitive answers. I often agree with what they are saying, but I find great humor in the fact that they often rely on assumption just as much, if not more then what they are trying to prove or disprove.


Its truely funny that people will believe myth busters without asking questions just as they did the original myth, and they don't even notice what they have done.


-Bryan

 

[speco2003]

They used one of the companies we tour with Meyer Sound

John Meyer knows more about audio than any of us could ever hope to learn.

Visit the site at www.meyersound.com


I think they still have a link up. We often kid about this sort of thing when we do large shows, we will call up the FOH mixer and tell him to make us poop. It sure feels like it sometimes.

 

[11001011]

Quote:

Originally posted by speco2003 They used one of the companies we tour with Meyer Sound John Meyer knows more about audio than any of us could ever hope to learn. Visit the site at www.meyersound.com

Yeah, I gathered that at least them two knew what they were doing.


So what does everyone think of the Brown note in general?


I think given the right conditions it could work. Not necessarily instant poop, but if you could cause enough discomfort a person might just let go.

 

[speco2003]

Strangely enough when this feeling has come over us its been with country acts. We have had as many as 20 of the 750 and 25 of the 650 subs per side not all atonce that would be 50 some a side and thats too much, but 25 a side and it can make your tummy move if your behind them more than in front of.

 

[DMF]

Quote:

Strangely enough when this feeling has come over us its been with country acts.

Well, how do you think Country and (mostly) Western was invented? Cowboys needed something to sooth the cattle herds. Cows get terrible constipation off certain grasses.

 

[bpape]

ROTFLMAO!

 

[Chu Gai]

In my younger years, I was never constipated from certain grasses.

 

[DMF]

Maybe not directly, but it can be a side effect of satisfying the dreaded munchies.

 

[jaredthecabot]

A frequency of 15Hz is around about the resonant frequency of the human body cavity. This frequency has the ability to move the intestines by up to 15cm! (thats 7.5cm either way). this movement would be enough to cause vomiting and maybe diahorreah. (My car stereo, which played down to a measured 5Hz often left me feeling a rather ill and 'soft' after a heavy, low frequency session, scary when your heart feels funny...)

The British police apparently conducted some experiments into low frequencies for crowd control, but low frequencies are non-directional and hard to block, so those using the device were affected as much as those being tested upon.

I have seen a website on this subject (dunno where now), HVAC systems in large buildings have to be designed not to resonate, as this can easily happen (a 3 storey steel duct would make a very nice subsonic tuned pipe.) and in extreme cases, subsonics can cause internal haemmoraging, disorientation and even blindness! (there have been documented cases)

A CD I used to have actually had a warning on it due to the prescence of ultra low frequencies.. It went something like this.


WARNING: This recording contains ultra low frequencies not normally contained on typical recordings, prolonged exposure may cause adverse effects such as nausea and disorientation.


The group is called BiffTek (Australian group)


I think the Myth busters test is flawed, I would have had the drivers set up like a wall to produce linear motion of the air.


If the frequency used was 20Hz, (as an example)

and sound travels at around 346m/s

then one wavelength would equal approx. 17.3m


I think AVS members should set up an experiment, I'll be the test subject!!

 

[heath1066]

It's funny, I hadn't heard the brown note story the way the myth busters show put it. My hearing of the myth always included someone cleaning or tuning a full size pipe organ, not some weird conspiracy. Although the experiment had some really impressive dB ratings in open air, I always kind of thought it was the harmonics caused by the pipe organ (at least in the versions that I heard [especially the version that include Ludwig Von]) that screw with the body.

 

[speco2003]

Quote:

Originally posted by jaredthecabot I think the Myth busters test is flawed, I would have had the drivers set up like a wall to produce linear motion of the air. If the frequency used was 20Hz, (as an example) and sound travels at around 346m/s then one wavelength would equal approx. 17.3m I think AVS members should set up an experiment, I'll be the test subject!!

John Meyer was a huge part of this test, there was nothing flawed about it. There isnt a member on this board that can come close to what he knows.

 

[11001011]

Quote:

Originally posted by speco2003 John Meyer was a huge part of this test, there was nothing flawed about it. There isnt a member on this board that can come close to what he knows.

Maybe he was not in charge of setting up the experiment. One of the two myth busters and their producer may have come up with test setup. They then bring in the master of sound to give their little experiment some much needed credibility. Who knows, he might have even told them that their test was flawed, but due to time=money they went ahead anyway...


There is still the matter of the test subject right next to the speakers feeling nothing but everyone twenty feet away all felt some physiological effects.

 

[bpape]

I too found that interesting that the people farther away were feeling it. I wonder how much cancellation was going on 'inside' that test setup.

 

[heath1066]

I don't know about cancellation in the "ring of fire", but the length of the waveform orbably plays into it.