Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by owenfi 1341 days ago
Would love some additional info on this if you are aware of any. My intuition says (and could very well be very wrong) sound at one frequency would only damage that or very nearby frequencies hearing range? If wrong I'm curious what the range of damage is (I'm interested in exploring ultrasound data protocols, so curious what frequency I have to go to to avoid damaging anyone's - and potentially animals as well - hearing).

I also assume if you are starting at a reasonable (laptop, small desktop speakers) at a low-to-medium level (say 50-60dB), increasing a bit won't cause immediate damage even if you can't hear the sound?
1 comments
marcodiego 1341 days ago
"With protracted exposure, inaudible ultrasound can also contribute to hearing loss." https://www.health.belgium.be/en/ultrasound-and-high-frequen...
link
marginalia_nu 1340 days ago
Operative word being protracted.

It's also important to realize that especially with infrasound, you're always exposed to it along with most regular sounds.

The modulation applied to sound to turn it into speech (i.e. amplitude and frequency shifts on order ~0.5-2 Hz) shows up in the frequency spectrum at those sorts of frequencies.

If you say "hey hey hey hey hey", that's a 1 Hz-or-whatever sound wave you're producing with a higher frequency carrier wave.

link