Infrasonic headphones

[mathis]

Hi, I just posted in another forum responding to a question about headphones which could reproduce frequencies between 0 and 20 Hz.
I was reminded to an older contact and started telling this story. I thought it´s worth amusing you with it, too:

@Another User said:

This thread about infrasonic headphones reminded me about an amazing contact I had 10 years ago with a totally brilliant Russian acoustician, Anatoli Ivannikov. He gave a fascinating lecture at some workshop about cause and effect of infrasonic waves. I liked him very much and we spent the evening by two with lots of beer where he told me absolutely amazing stories about infrasonics as a weapon. The Germans had an infrasonic cannon in the first world war to paralyze whole villages. And he told me - always good for a story - nice KGB anecdotes (he of course worked for them), they basically asked him to build a construction with which they could control the masses during the Moskow Olympic games. (And besides that he told me very exciting insights about the acoustical bugging tricks they used in these old Egyptian pyramides. Basically how they could hear through meter thick stone walls. But that's another story.))
His biggest complaint was that there is still no comprehensive scientifical study about the effect of infrasonic waves. It's clear that these waves *have* an effect, but nobody knows yet exactly which one. So, for example, which frequency causes which reaction in our nervous system. And if anybody claims that he knows you can be sure, he is just guessing wild. Anatoli would know.
Of course he dreamed of doing this research himself and further on he dreamed constructing an infrasonic transducer cvonsisting of a massive concrete pipe and some pneumatic device on top of a 40 tons truck. With that vehicle he wanted to travel the country and do spectacular shows, a bit like circus. Very romantic idea, of course. I loved it.

So, to make the story short, build two of these 40 tons truck concrete pipe infrasonics transducers, build a connecting harness and strap them onto your head. I think you would end up with some AMAZING infrasonics headphones...

Good luck and tell us about the specific effects,
- Mathis

[GTBannah]

Would anything survive a "sound" at 5Hz? That "sounds" like earthquake frequency to me.

In the same way that certain high frequencies, when sustained, shatter glass, low frequencies, when sustained, might make the Arc de Triomphe crumble.

Nice idea, though, the head 'phones. [:)]

[mathis]

That´s of course a question of amplitude. Actually you´re surrounded by infrasonic waves all the time, but chaotic.
Anatoli also stated that a lot of human communication is done with infrasonics. A sensible actor on stage would send not only his voice and gestures but also infrasonic waves. His idea: "A good reciever is also a good sender."

You don´t need these enormous pipes for achieving high volume/amplitudes, you need them for generating pure fundamentals.

[Dietz]

Funny thread :-]

Just to keep things in perspective: Of course there's nothing like "0 Hz" (like 0° Celsius, for example), which would mean complete standstill. - I suspect there is nothing in the whole universe without a certain kind of movement, be it in the sub-sub-infrasonic range, like the pulse of stars or whole galaxies, or extreme HF-ranges on the other side of the spectrum.

... acoustic-philosophical thought for the New Year ;-]

/Dietz

[caseybasichis]

Hey,
Just looking around. That would be 0 degrees Kelvin that is standstill or absolute zero. 0 hz is quite common on the other hand as Hz refers to cycles per second implying a periodic waveform, most movement is chaotic and not periodic. 0Hz is common in audio especially in FFT as a DC offset with a cosine wave.

Now if only i knew if i need to pan the cellos R34 or R35 [:)]

Casey

[PolarBear]

R34.4999 (periodic) [:P]