Even if a person enters an empty room without people or animals, he will not be in absolute silence. If you concentrate extremely hard and sharpen your attention, you can hear that somewhere electrical appliances are quietly humming or a clock is ticking. The sound from these small sources bounces off the walls, increasing their volume slightly. But there are places in the world where walls do not reflect, but absorb all sound waves. One such place is theanechoic chamber at the Orfield Laboratory, which is located in the US state of Minneapolis. While a level of 30 decibels is considered comfortable silence for a person, inside this chamber the background noise level is -24.9 decibels. You might think that in such silence a person could have a great rest, but no. Many people cannot stay there for 15 minutes because they become anxious. There is a convincing scientific explanation for this.
The quietest place in the world is located in the American state of Minneapolis. Source: travelask.ru
Orfield Laboratories is a research center that conducts acoustic experiments and studies human responses to various environmental conditions. It was founded in 1971 by explorer Stephen Orfield and is still in operation today.
Contents
- 1 The Quietest Place in the World< /li>
- 2 What does a person hear in silence
- 3 Why silence drives people crazy
- 4 Why is the quietest room in the world needed
- 5 The record for the quietest room
- li>
The quietest place in the world
Inside this laboratory is the quiest place on Earth– a chamber in which the walls, ceiling and floor absorb 99.9% of sound waves. This effect occurs due to the fact that all surfaces in the chamber are covered with wedge-shaped panels. The floor is covered with mesh material that can support the weight of an adult's body. Until 1990, this room was part of the Sound 80 recording studio, where famous musicians such as Bob Dylan and Prince Nelson worked. This place is registered in the Guinness Book of Records.
This is what the quietest room in the world looks like. Source: travelask.ru
What a person hears in silence
When a person is taken into the anechoic chamber of the Orfield Laboratory, he begins to hear only the sounds of his own body. For example, he can clearly hear the beating of the heart, the movement of blood in the veins, the sounds of the lungs filling with air, and even the creaking of joints and bones. Also, in conditions of absolute silence, many people experience tinnitus – a ringing or roaring sound in the ears.
Read also:5 signs that a person’s hearing is deteriorating
Why silence drives people crazy
You might think that in conditions of complete silence a person can have a good rest. Usually we are always surrounded by at least some noise: the volume level of the rustling of leaves is estimated at 40 decibels, and even our breathing sounds at 10 decibels. The research chamber has a noise level of -24.9 decibels, which is as quiet as it can be. This is well below the human hearing threshold of 0 decibels.
In fact, in conditions of absolute silence, people quickly begin to feel unwell. In the complete absence of external sounds, the noise of internal organs causes alarm. In addition, a person ceases to feel the surrounding space – surprisingly, the echo from the walls often helps us navigate rooms, and we don’t even notice it. This is especially noticeable if you turn off the light in the camera. In addition to all this, in silence the brain tries to fill the vacated space and comes up with sounds itself, as a result of which a person experiences auditory hallucinations.
In complete silence a person begins to go crazy, it was proven in the world's quietest room. Source: drive2.ru
The cost to visit the world's quietest room is $600 per hour. At the same time, some people ask to be released from there after 15 minutes – they feel so bad. The record for staying in a quiet room is 45 minutes.
There is a myth that for the longest stay in silence they give a cash prize. In fact, these are just rumors from social networks – no prizes are given to visitors to this unusual place.
Important achievement: The boy's hearing was restored using genetic engineering – medicine has been moving towards this for 20 years years
What is the quietest room in the world for?
Today, the anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratory is used for more than just experiments. Some companies bring their products there to evaluate their quietness. For example, Sleep Number mattresses and Whirlpool dishwashers were tested there.
Because of the silence, people can go crazy even in space. Source: kama24.ru
Another quiet room in the world is used for training astronauts. In space, the level of external noise is much lower than on Earth. Even in such conditions, people begin to experience stress, so astronauts must be able to adapt to them. Otherwise, an accident may occur in space due to the psychological breakdown of one or more crew members.
Everyone should know this:What kind of music can cause hearing impairment?
Record for the quietest room
There are other rooms in the world in which the walls absorb sound. One of them is the Microsoft anechoic chamber, which is located in the US state of Washington.
A quiet room in the Microsoft facility. Source: fishki.net
Previously, the noise level in the chamber at the Orfield Laboratory was estimated at -9.4 decibels. Once, conditions were created in the Microsoft room in which the sound level was -20.6 decibels. But in 2022, the creators of the anechoic chamber in the Orfield Laboratory announced that they were able to achieve a result of -24.9 decibels.
You will find even more interesting articles in our Zen channel. There are already more than 100 thousand of us!
How many minutes do you think you could last in the quietest room in the world? Share your answer in our Telegram chat.