John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Yes My Young Jedi, the force is strong in this place.

Bryan Giles

Now back to building studios.

Just out of curiosity, how big would the bass trap need to be if the 57 octaves below middle C only pulses once every 17.5 million years?

I assume its wavelength depends on the transmission medium, yes?

Yeah, the frequency and speed of sound determine the wavelength. I have no clue how fast sound would travel through the clouds of matter surrounding a black hole. Relative to our atmosphere, however, those clouds would be considered ultra high vacuums!

Thomas

Thomas, is "sound" the lable we give to what our ears sense in the air, and our brain translates it into? If so, then the saying...."if a tree falls in the forest and there is.."
you know.., makes me think there is no such thing as "sound". Only vibrations in air at a frequency within our ears perceptual range, and the brain tells us there is movement. IF there is an ear to detect it. We then call it sound. Is that a fair statement?

Therefore there is no such thing as sound in a vacume, correct?
Or vibrations at a frequency our ears can detect? What does the scientist use to detect vibrations at lower or higher frequencys in a vacum, such as stated in the article I described? What medium or device is used to detect such low frequencies, and how and what do they move....whoa! Stop;;;;@#$

I've gotten in way over my head. And this isn't a science class Nevermind
Thanks anyway.
fitZ

These are great questions Rick.

I'm speaking of sound in the physical sense - i.e. compression waves traveling through a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.

Space really isn't a vacuum. There are atoms and molecules out there. It's just that they are very far apart from one another compared to gasses at atmospheric pressure. So sound waves can travel through space. In a sense, some of the mechanisms in the expansion of the universe can be thought of as sound waves.

My understanding is that the sound waves emitted from black holes are observed as ripples in the surrounding gas clouds. If you filled a room with fog, shined some light through it, and turned up the sound very, very, very loud, you could see the standing waves in the same way. (You couldn't see the traveling waves because they move to fast).

Thomas

Thank you sir.
fitZ