Brain busters

[Darkwood]

Right guys and girls, I'm kickstarting a thread that asks what appear to be quite simple to moderately complicated questions within the realms of what we observe daily to science and space.

These questions are designed to initially seem simple in solution, that is until you actually start thinking about the answer.

The only rule is that you please don't search the Net for the answers, its about confusion and actually using your own mind to resolve and answer the questions, its not a game of intelligence here and who can get the answer the quickest, its about the discussion and ideas... you'll get my drift.

Ill pop new questions up regularly based on how discussion are going and whether the previous questions have been put to bed, Ill number and headline the questions and when you get the answer Ill change the font and colour so its easy to locate from all the other posts.

 

[Darkwood]

Question 1-

If you make sure you're in a quiet room and procede to cover both ears with your hands you will be aware of a low frequency noise approx 20-30htz

All I want to know is what is the source of this noise or why do we perceive the noise if indeed all it not as it seems?

 

[R G]

The mother in law..

 

[Darkwood]

The mother in law..

I did say quiet room!... Mother in law and quiet room are terms that just don't go together.

 

[Rpa07]

I'll go for the frequency that muscle cells work at. Lots of different type muscles doing the body thing all at the same time produces the hum.
There is a quiet room in Switzerland or somewhere like that. It is so well soundproofed that you can hear the blood moving in your veins and you go mad after 20 mins - weLl I made it to 25, mwahaahaahaaa!
Not quite sure if all that info is true but it MAY be close.

 

[Darkwood]

@Rpa07
Nice theory, is there anyway you can reinforce this by trying anything?

 

[The Ghost]

The ears hear the bloodstream moving. After all you have major arteries moving blood up to the brain and the brain takes up to 70% of the blood its very greedy.

 

[The Ghost]

@Rpa07 mhmm and have you got a lot of muscle around or between your ears?

 

[Midwest]

It's the RAF warming up the Hercs at BZN again!

 

[mhar]

20-30Hz are some of the frequencies used in dubstep, you tend to feel these frequencies rather than hear them. Sound is a vibration of air, maybe the body is a better transmission media than free air and the large mass of your body 'collects' these frequencies better than the individual receptors in your ear?

 

[Rpa07]

Put foam earplugs in your ears and clench your jaw muscles - also moving your head and neck you'll hear all sorts pops and cracks - it's a trip. As mhar states, your ears aren't hearing the movement of air but probably the frequency of the vibration through your sinus airspaces.
In other words - I don't know and I'm beginning to blag my way through!

 

[sparkdog]

Is it the sound of last night's curry escaping?

 

[mhar]

A lot of amplifiers are clipped at 30Hz. If you are ever lucky enough to experience proper dubstep on a decent soundsystem and they are able to reproduce sub 30Hz, it is like somebody mapping out all your inner cavities the way you can feel the vibrations rattling around . Addictive

 

[Wilko]

I'll go for the frequency that muscle cells work at. Lots of different type muscles doing the body thing all at the same time produces the hum.

I vote for this too. The palms trap air in the outer ear canal, the vibe is the flexing of our arm muscles contracting and releasing trying to maintain a comfy pressure of palm on ear. That is, if this were done with ear defenders (for example) you wouldn't hear it ?

 

[Rpa07]

Thanks Wilko for the solidarity, although I think this is the only post I've seen from you that isn't back up by a regulation!
Respect always mate!
Rob

 

[Wilko]

Thanks Wilko for the solidarity, although I think this is the only post I've seen from you that isn't back up by a regulation!
Respect always mate!
Rob

Still looking for one

 

[telectrix]

you're all wrong. this is the answer:

 

[Wilko]

All this holding my arms up has left me comfortably numb, with a familiar sound but it's not at 30Hz. Really enjoying this one @Pete999

 

[Rpa07]

Can't imagine anyone commenting on that Wilko!
My second guess is 'the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang!'
Darn, Tel got there first!

 

[telectrix]

has gilmore had a sex change?

 

[Darkwood]

Question 1 - answer.

It was touched on by a few so here is the answer -

What your hearing originates from your muscles in your arms, the myosin and actin microfiliments are expanding and contracting continuously, you can exagerater this effect to test it out by tensing you muscles and relaxing them while covering your ears, what should happen is an amplification in the sound as more microfilaments become active.

 

[Darkwood]

Question 2 . Meteors..

On a standard clear night one can observe about 6 meteors per hour on average but as it approaches morning the frequency increases. Why!

 

[Midwest]

darkwood, been trying to find youtube clips of a young electric guitar guitar player, think you posted clips before? He went on to produce some albums?

 

[Rpa07]

Gravitational pull of the earth reference to the moons position will be increased and pull those small rocks and grains that are 'shooting stars' to be burnt in the earths outer stratospheric layers. So there!

 

[Wilko]

No no no , you are forgetting that the earth is flat, so it must be that the plate turns more into the stream?

 

[Midwest]

Effect of the gravitation pull of the sun?

 

[Rpa07]

Oh ahh! Some idiot scimming stones after a late night out,then. So there!

No no no , you are forgetting that the earth is flat, so it must be that the plate turns more into the stream?

 

[telectrix]

i tried to get the answer from meteor (electrical supplies) but they were closed @ 4.00 a.m.

 

[Darkwood]

darkwood, been trying to find youtube clips of a young electric guitar guitar player, think you posted clips before? He went on to produce some albums?

Need more info, I normally follow accoustic guitars as Im learning one but can't recall unless you narrow it down for us.

 

[hightower]

My guess would be that early morning the earth is starting to face the direction it is actually orbiting. Bit like midgies on your car - one or two will fly in to the back/sides but the front is ploughing through them all.

 

[telectrix]

it's because the butty vans open at 7. everyone wants to be first in the queue.

 

[Richard Burns]

I would match with hightower, as dawn approaches the earth is facing into the dust cloud as earth orbits, during the night the earth is facing away from the dust so only particles moving faster than earth's orbital speed will enter the atmosphere; as dawn approaches the earths orbital speed adds to the meteoric dust speed to allow more particles to hit the atmosphere.

View attachment 35491

 

[Midwest]

Need more info, I normally follow accoustic guitars as Im learning one but can't recall unless you narrow it down for us.

Perhaps it weren't yourself then. It was a bit like Funtwo, think he was French.

 

[Des 56]

I wonder if the earths magnetic field causes this effect,many meteors are often made of iron material

 

[telectrix]

I would match with hightower, as dawn approaches the earth is facing into the dust cloud as earth orbits, during the night the earth is facing away from the dust so only particles moving faster than earth's orbital speed will enter the atmosphere; as dawn approaches the earths orbital speed adds to the meteoric dust speed to allow more particles to hit the atmosphere.

View attachment 35491

problem with your theory is that you are assuming that the earth is round and it orbits the sun. it has been for donkeys years, according to the catholic church, that the earth is flat, and the sun and planets orbit around earth. galileo was a heretic, should have been burnt at the stake, now that's out of the way, it's obvious that because the earth is flat, as morning comes, them pesky comets are skimming the surface, and so appear to be more in number because of collisssions and scatter due to flatness.

 

[Darkwood]

Question 2 Answer -

I think a few are hovering around the answer, its quite straight forward in that as the earth orbits the sun it can catch up to space debris but as the earth is revolving anyone entering night is going to be at the rear of its orbital path around the sun so many meteorites are blocked by the earths mass but from midnight onwards your position is exposed as you start to enter the lead side of its Sun orbit where it can catch up to meteorites and is not just exposed to random ones from any direction found as you head into night.

 

[Rpa07]

@hightower and his gnats theory?

Thanks for keeping us thinking Darkwood - it gets a little quiet in the dining room after the visitors have left and before Pete starts on the red!

 

[Darkwood]

Question 3 - Magnet and steel.

I have 2 identical pieces of what look like small steel blocks, approx the same size and shape as a fishfinger to give you an idea of scale.
One of these pieces is a permanent magnet and the other is an ordinary piece of steel, they of course stick together but can you say which one is the permanent magnet and which is the normal piece of steel, Oh!... you cannot use anything else in deciding just the two pieces of steel, so no trying to pick up paper clips etc, you cannot use anything else at all... So how can you tell which is which?

 

[Wilko]

Darn, I've thrown out my fish finger magnets so I can't try this ... but I'm thinking the N (or S) of permanent magnet will be attracted to the steel equally along the steel.

 

[Richard Burns]

Stroke the short end one of the pieces from end to end in one direction along the length of the other piece several times.
If the magnet is the short end piece then it will induce magnetism in the steel and then one end of the steel will be repellent to one end of the magnet, if the magnet is the length piece then the steel will not be magnetised and will not repel.

View attachment 35495

 

[Darkwood]

@Richard Burns - No, although it may work there is a simpler way without turning the non-magnetised steel into a magnet.

PS hope members are not searching the net for this as quite a few pics are been posted off the net... its a thread to exercise the mind not the search engine , not aimed at anyone here, just a reminder to all to try resist the urge to look it up.

 

[Des 56]

Can it be something to do with making it into a compass,balance one on top of the other the magnetic piece only will move

 

[Darkwood]

The only nudge I can give anyone is to think about the properties of the bar magnet IE... it has a N end and a S end, is there any way we could exploit that fact to prove the piece of normal steel from the bar magnet?

 

[Richard Burns]

Spin them and see which one stops consistently nearer north south alignment, but that is using the earth's magnetic field, which we are not allowed to do.

 

[Rpa07]

What's a fish finger?

@Richard Burns - you sir, are the King of diagramitical explanation. You should have Beckhams knighthood!

 

[Wilko]

What's a fish finger?

Here's a couple of pics, off the the Internet I'm afraid ...

View attachment 35501

 

[Rpa07]

Which one do I have with chips and mushie peas? Thanks Wilko.

Here's a couple of pics, off the the Internet I'm afraid ...

View attachment 35501

 

[David M]

The only 2 Ways I can think about at the moment is either using the bars as compasses on a piece of string. Or, usually magnets are stronger at the poles so you may be able to feel this difference when comparing the two bars against each other.

 

[Darkwood]

Compass theory is not the right direction although David M made a good observation about bar magnets that may help.

 

[ElectroChem]

The permanent magnet will have distinct poles that the mild steel will tend to snap to. Apply the end of each piece to the middle of the other and see which sticks.