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Pastimes : Where the GIT's are going -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Sarkie who wrote (35037)1/26/2002 12:59:16 PM
From: c.horn  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 225578
 
White noise is what's used for sound suppression.

White noise contains all frequencies, it is frequently used to mask other sounds. If you are in a hotel and voices from the room next-door are leaking into your room, you might turn on a fan to drown out the voices. The fan produces a good approximation of white noise.

Here is one way to think about it. Let's say two people are talking at the same time. Your brain can normally "pick out" one of the two voices and actually listen to it and understand it. If three people are talking simultaneously, your brain can probably still pick out one voice. However, if 1,000 people are talking simultaneously, there is no way that your brain can pick out one voice. It turns out that 1,000 people talking together sounds a lot like white noise. So when you turn on a fan to create white noise, you are essentially creating a source of 1,000 voices. The voice next-door makes it 1,001 voices, and your brain can't pick it out any more.

There are devices you can purchase and put in the bedroom that will mask ambient sound.