Science: questions and answers

Historic planetary instability and catastrophe. Evidence for electrical scarring on planets and moons. Electrical events in today's solar system. Electric Earth.

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jjohnson
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Re: Electric Slingshot

Unread post by jjohnson » Fri May 27, 2011 2:23 pm

Here is a nice little explanation from NASA/JPL. The important thing to remember is that momentum is conserved. The other, less noticeable part is that the momentum of the planet is its angular momentum which causes it to follow a curved path around the Sun, and is not just a straight-line momentum.

The reason that also figures in is that during the encounter, the velocity vector of Jupiter, say, continues to rotate , so that adding it vectorially to the satellite being accelerated is a continuously smooth-changing force application throughout the maneuver. You don't just stick a force vector on here and it ends up still pointing in the same original direction later on, or even during the encounter.

As they point out, the acceleration can also be negative - deceleration - and an acceleration can be simply a heading change, like the ESA's example from a different website that noted how Jupiter was used to accelerate the ULYSSES spacecraft's trajectory away up and away from the plane of the ecliptic and into a polar-solar orbit.

It is not clear whether a planet's rotation about its own axis plays a part in the interaction, or if it is the planet's orbital momentum around the Sun alone. In the latter case, the planet would be slowed or sped up a tiny bit during a momentum transfer, or even have its orbital plane change a tiny bit. The effect on the momentum and trajectory of the far less massive spacecraft generally is much more so than on the planet or moon. Their apt analogy using a baseball thrown at a freight train is pretty clear!

Sparky
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Re: Electric Slingshot

Unread post by Sparky » Fri May 27, 2011 4:04 pm

redeye," When using a slingshot to move sunwards about half as much momentum is gained compared to a slingshot moving out from the Sun."
miles mathis may have answered that...he proposes photon drag, so i guess anything moving toward the sun would experience this phenomenon....

he also makes a good case that photons are mass...
so, if a photon flies by any mass, there should be an interaction, shouldn't there be?

jjohnson, thanks for link....will study it tomorrow..
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PersianPaladin
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Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by PersianPaladin » Sun Jun 12, 2011 11:42 am

Very weird phenomena. This village is not too far from me.....do you reckon it could somehow be related to EU? Or maybe something man-made?

Now a tiny English village is the latest community to claim to be being hit by the phenomenon known as "the hum".

Residents of Woodland, in County Durham, claim that every night a noise permeates the air similar to the throb of a car engine.

It is sometimes so strong that it even shakes the bed of one of the householders.

But no matter how hard they look, the community cannot find the source of the problem and, at their wits end, have called in the council to investigate.

The 300-strong population is the latest around the world to be hit by the rumble which has in the past led to wild conspiracy theories blaming it on UFOs, government experiments and abandoned mine shafts.

It is so widespread that it has even featured on the television show The X Files.

It's most famous occurrence was in Bristol in the 1970s when more than a thousand people complained of the consistent drone causing nosebleeds, sleeplessness and headaches.

It vanished as mysteriously as it arrived and was never explained.

Residents of Woodland, a community consisting of one main street surrounded by farmland, claims their version of "the hum" is constant from midnight until 4am every night and stops them sleeping.

There are no pylons, factories or abandoned mines nearby.

The noise started about two months ago and has been plaguing the isolated village every day since.

Marylin Grech, 57, a retired store detective, said: "In certain areas of the house you can hear it more loudly. It is definitely from outside, it's in the air, all around, very faint.

"It vibrates through the house. We've turned all the electricity off in the house and we can still hear it, so it's not that.

"Sometimes we'll be in bed and it vibrates right through our bed, like a throbbing.

"It's not tinnitus, that's a high pitched sound and this is very low. If I put my fingers in my ears it stops, so I know it's not in my head.

"At 4am it's so clear, because we live in such an isolated place with no traffic, it's heaven.

"But it leaves a buzzing in your head for the rest of the day."

Gary Hutchinson, an environmental protection manager at Durham County Council, said: "I can confirm that we received a call regarding a humming sound in the Woodland area earlier on June 1 and we will now make further enquiries before deciding what action we will take."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... sq-content

Sparky
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by Sparky » Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:58 pm

-Bristol in the 1970s -
seems like i have seen a report of this in the usa....

40 yrs and no good investigation results??!
"It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong."
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PersianPaladin
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by PersianPaladin » Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:39 pm

Another interesting case here:-
Katie first became aware of the maddening rumble two years ago. She turned everything electrical off at the mains, but that made no difference. Neither did her efforts to block out the sound with ear plugs, or smother it with music.

Neighbours are unaffected and tests by environmental health officials have drawn a blank.

Checks on Katie's ears ruled out tinnitus, a ringing noise that generally follows the sufferer wherever they go.

Katie, like most victims of the hum, only hears the noise at a specific location - in her case, at home. Elsewhere, her hearing is fine.

Moving out is an option she's considered, but she's reluctant to leave the house she's lived in for nearly 50 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8056284.stm

Sparky
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by Sparky » Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:39 pm

http://www.qsl.net/w5www/taoshum.html

Citizens in Britain and portions of the Southwestern U.S. have been complaining about a maddening hum that just won't go away. And researchers have been unable to pinpoint its source. Not everyone can hear the low-pitched hum, and those who do say that it seems artificial in nature - and is driving them crazy.

In 1977, a British newspaper received nearly 800 letters from people complaining of loss of sleep, dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, anxiety, irritability, deteriorating health, inability to read or study because of the incessant hum.

Most famous in the U.S. is the "Taos Hum". There the annoyance was so acute for the "hearers" in Taos, New Mexico that they banded together in 1993 and petitioned Congress to investigate and help them find the source of the noise. No conclusive causes were discovered. One prevailing theory holds that the hum is created by a military communications system used to contact submarines.

Most hearers say the noise begins abruptly, never abates, interferes with sleep and is more noticeable inside a house or car than outside. Some describe it as sounding like a diesel engine idling in the distance.

Since it has proven undetectable by microphones or VLF antennae, its source and nature is still a mystery.

In 1997 Congress directed scientists and observers from some of the most prestigious research institutes in the nation to look into a strange low frequency noise heard by residents in and around the small town of Taos, New Mexico. For years those who had heard the noise, often described by them as a "hum", had been looking for answers. No one was sure when it began, but its persistence led first a few and then many of those who heard it (called "hearers" by each other) to band together. In 1993 they found their way to Congress.

The investigation Congress requested consisted of a team of a dozen investigators from a number of scientific institutions. Joe Mullins of the University of New Mexico and Horace Poteet of Sandia National Laboratories wrote the team's final report. Other New Mexico research organizations involved included Phillips Air Force Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Concern by hearers that the hum might have been caused by the Department of Defense ensured that the investigation was conducted in the open and that a large number of persons were contacted.

The first goal of the investigative team was to interview hearers and try to determine the nature of the hum ­ the sound it made, its frequency, timing and its effects on those who heard it. Next the team planned to survey residents of Taos and the surrounding communities to determine how wide spread the hum was. Finally, the team was to try to isolate and determine the cause of the hum. Important to their effort was the team's clear interest in deter-mining the cause of the phenomenon, rather than questioning the hum's existence. There was a generally clear understanding by the investigators that something was happening here, but just exactly what it was seemed to defy definition.

The initial investigation focused on ten hearers and determined certain key facts surrounding the hum. It was persistent. It was heard by only a small number of people. The sound was extremely low on the frequency scale ­ between 30 and 80Hz. There was variation in how different hearers perceived the sound. Some heard a sound like the low rumbling of a truck while others heard a more steady, pulsing, yet still low sound. Interestingly, the investigators learned that the sound was not limited to the area around Taos, but was, in fact, heard at places all over the country and around the globe.

Hearers described the increasing problems they were having with the hum. Consistent with the reports and complaints that had brought the issue to Congress in the first place, hearers described the hum as a cause not just of annoyance, but also of dizziness, insomnia or sleep disturbance, pressure on the ears, headaches and even nosebleeds. The hearers were also bothered by the disturbing nature of its existence: it did not seem like a natural phenomenon to them.

According to the August 23, 1993 " Taos Hum Investigation: Informal Report", most hearers initially experienced the hum with an "abrupt beginning, as if some device were switched on." Many of the hearers believed there was a connection between the hum, the military installations in and around New Mexico, and the Department of Defense or that the hum was somehow caused by the U. S. Navy's ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) stations in Northern Michigan. These suspicions made a civilian presence on the investigation team necessary.

After examining ten hearers the team (now including James Kelly, a hearing research scientist with the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center) began a broad survey of Taos locals. Their survey of 1,440 residents led the team to extrapolate that roughly 2% of the Taos population were hearers.

Given this large number of hearers, initial exploration of a source for the hum focused on external possibilities for generation of the low frequency hum. While there were isolated instances of hearing within the low frequency range identified by hearers, these tests revealed no consistent background noise which could account for the hum. As Mullins and Kelly concluded, there were "no known acoustic signals that might account for the hum, nor are there any seismic events that might explain it."

Having ruled out external sources the team focused on testing hearers' inner ears and on researching frequency sensitivity. While these investigations are not complete, it appears highly unlikely that the hum is caused by low frequency tinnitus as some have speculated. Mullins and Kelly are more inclined to believe that hearers have developed a specific sensitivity to sounds in the 20 to 100Hz range and therefore are directing their research toward gleaning an understanding of how the ear perceives low frequency energy.

While this approach may help answer the persistent question of the hum's origin, Dr. Nick Begich and Patrick Flanagan (a Sedona-based inventor and scientist), have explored another possibility. Dr. Nick Begich has found some interesting clues in Mullins' own comments that might lead to another source for the hearers' unique ability and, perhaps in the long term, a solution to their near-debilitating problem.

To support the future direction of his research Mullins has pointed out that, as a nation, "...we're slowly building up the background of electronic noise...We're going to more and more cordless things ­ all electromagnetic transmitters. Whether that's the cause of the hum, we don't know, but we can't write it off."

Begich theorizes that the cause of the hum may be found within this electromagnetic background buildup. He believes that there is a mechanism for the transduction of sound which might explain the hum. The key may be hidden in a technology invented by Dr. Patrick Flanagan. NeurophonicTM sound technologies were developed based on an understanding of sound transfer using different "hearing" pathways to the brain. Standard sound measuring and diagnostic equipment would be ineffective in locating the "sound" source.

Patrick Flanagan's NeurophoneTM, invented when Flanagan was 14, is a low voltage, high frequency, amplitude modulated radio oscillator. In simpler terms, the NeurophoneTM acts on the skin of the listener by converting "...modulated radio waves into a neural modulated signal that bypasses the 8th cranial hearing nerve and transmits intelligence directly into the learning centers of the brain." In other words the NeurophoneTM allows the listener to "hear" without having to use the ear canal or the bones and nerves we normally associate with hearing.

Flanagan's patent was approved after a six year fight with the patent office culminating in a test of the device on a hearing impaired patent office employee. The demonstration convinced the patent examiner that the NeurophoneTM worked, even though it appeared to fly in the face of traditional concepts of how we hear. The novel concept with the NeurophoneTM is that we use the skin itself as the neural transmitter.

This concept is actually quite simple. When in the womb, a fetus's skin serves as the primary sensory organ. From it evolve the eyes, the nose and the ears. While the ears specialize in hearing, Flanagan recognized that the skin is also an organ. Consequently, if a way could be found to transmit information through the skin to the brain, then information could be directly communicated to the brain, bypassing the ears. The NeurophoneTM ran radio waves through two small electrodes placed on the skin and essentially used existing neural pathways to directly access the brain.

Flanagan's NeurophoneTM research offers a possible explanation for the Taos hum. As Mullins has pointed out, we are surrounded by a large number of low frequency devices ­ all operating around 60Hz. Given Flanagan's NeurophoneTM concept, it is possible that this concentration of frequency may well be resonating with the skin causing a direct neural link between the skin and the brain. As with the NeurophoneTM, some individuals are more receptive than others. Consequently, some persons' skin could be more receptive to ambient electromagnetic frequencies than others.

Flanagan and Begich speculate that the NeurophoneTM could be pulsed at the frequencies identified by those hearers interviewed by Mullins and the investigative team. If the hum was generated by ambient electromagnetic fields then the NeurophoneTM technology could be used to mitigate it. While Mullins is investigating the ear canal and our human hearing apparatus, Flanagan and Begich believe that the answer is more likely to be found through the pathways established by the NeurophoneTM, which bypass the ear entirely.

Proof of whether or not their theory is correct is reliant upon testing of hearers. If Begich and Flanagan are correct, the NeurophonicTM technology and what has been learned about hearing may well be used to alleviate the suffering of hearers as the search for the source of the hum continues.

By Thomas Begich - The Earthpulse Press
"It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong."
"Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one."
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PersianPaladin
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by PersianPaladin » Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:59 am

Thanks for that Sparky.

Sparky
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by Sparky » Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:34 am

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technolog ... e=fullpage
A New Zealand scientist believes he's captured a recording of the mystery hum that has been heard by scores of people living and in and around the city of Auckland.

Dr Tom Moir, a computer engineer at Massey University's Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, made the recording at a house in Auckland's North Shore suburb of Glenfield earlier this week.

Dr Moir and his colleague Dr Fakhrul Alam have dubbed the sound an unidentified acoustic phenomena.

Four people who previously reported hearing the low-level hum have confirmed that this is the sound they can hear in their homes.

"If this is indeed the hum, then it's acoustical and not electromagnetic," Dr Moir said.

Dr Moir previously pinpointed the low-level drone at a frequency of 56Hz, which is very close to the 50Hz frequency produced by the 240 volt AC main electricity supply delivered to homes in New Zealand (and Australia).

Although 56Hz is within the standard range of human hearing - which can range from 20 to 20,000Hz - it is too low for many people to pick up.

One of Dr Moir's students, Ms Nair Tsuji, who is able to hear the sound, has acted as Dr Moir's "ears". She also confirmed that the sound they heard in the Glenfield home was the same as the one she hears in her home in Whangaparaoa, about 30 minutes' drive north of Auckland.

All the 30-plus cases reported to Dr Moir are occurring in Auckland's north.

Dr Moir said the next step was to triangulate the sound in the hope of pinpointing the source.

He said that although there was a "high probability" that this was the sound, he's doubtful that he would ever be able to track its source.

According to a theory put forward by Professor Rod Cross, at Sydney University's department of Physics, the sound could be the humming of sand dunes, as described in the latest issue of Physics World, a monthly academic journal.

Professor Cross said he hadn't yet read the article, only heard about it. But it is available online here.

"The sound file on the web sounds like someone blowing over the top of an empty bottle," Professor Cross wrote in an email. "The New Zealand hum sound might therefore be due to wind blowing over hills and valleys. It may not actually require strong winds to cause the effect. Perhaps slowly moving air could do it."

Taking another informed guess, Professor Cross said the sound could be due to the motion under the earth. For example, hot gases or liquids rising through cavities could cause an organ pipe effect.

"Organ pipes can start humming just by small changes in temperature," he wrote. "There could be some subtle natural geological organ pipes in the hills."

For those who are able to hear it, the sound has become the bane of their lives, driving some to distraction and others to take drastic action.

Dr Moir said one sufferer, a man, was so desperate to stop hearing the sound he deliberately tried to damage his own hearing by starting up a chainsaw close to his ears.

The affliction appears to be similar to tinnitus, a condition in which sufferers hear a constant, high-pitched ringing sound.


another similar article by Stephen Hutcheon:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/technolog ... 14733.html
Scientists investigating a strange humming sound in the New Zealand city of Auckland believe they have pinpointed the frequency. The source of the noise, however, remains a mystery.

According to Dr Tom Moir, a computer engineer at Massey University's Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, the low level drone is almost certainly hitting the scales at a frequency of 56Hz.

He has tested three people who can hear the noise and they all come up around that frequency. A fourth person who was tested returned an inconclusive result.

Although 56Hz is within the standard range of human hearing - which can range from 20 to 20,000Hz - it is too low for most people to pick up.

That however, has not brought the sleuths any closer to pinpointing the source of the hum which they have dubbed the Unidentified Acoustic Phenomena.

Dr Moir rules out geological factors. "It's more likely to be things like pipes under the ground - you know, gas pipes, sewerage pipes, factories in the distance."

But for those who can hear it, the sound is the bane of their lives, driving some to distraction and others to take drastic action.

Dr Moir said one sufferer, a man, was so desperate to stop hearing the sound that he deliberately tried to damage his own hearing by cranking up a chain saw close to his ears. "He said it was so bad, he couldn't stand it. It was driving him mad."

Another victim of the hum says it can prevent her from sleeping at night.

Since a woman living in the North Shore suburb of Brown's Bay first contacted Dr Moir and his colleague Dr Fakhrul Alam in mid-August, the scientists have been approached by about 30 sufferers, all from areas in Auckland's north.

"These people who pick [the hum] up have a very low threshold for hearing at low frequencies - don't know why, but they do," says Dr Moir.

Some have been reticent to give away more details of their predicament for fear that reports of persistent humming could adversely affect the resale price of their homes.

With the help of one of the sufferers, Dr Moir has developed a simulation of the sound. "The real thing," he says "is more like the drone of an aircraft and it comes and goes," he said.

The affliction appears to be similar to tinnitus, a condition in which sufferers hearing a constant, high-pitched ringing sound. In severe case it can affect sleep and normal daily routines.

A number of high profile musicians are said to have suffered from tinnitus including Beethoven, Bono and Eric Clapton.

Complicating the investigation is the fact that neither Dr Moir nor his colleague can hear the sound so with each sufferer they visit they must first run tests to rule out psychosomatic factors and any other obvious causes.

Fortunately, Dr Moir discovered on the weekend that his wife, who accompanied him on a visit to one of the affected homes, was able to hear the hum.

This is not the first incidence of humming in New Zealand. In 2005, New Zealand author Rachel McAlpine wrote a book called The Humming.

In her novel set in small town, an artist called Ivan and a number of the townsfolk are plagued by a low frequency humming noise.

The book was largely inspired by the author's own experiences in the seaside town of Puponga on the northwest tip of New Zealand's south island which was itself at the centre of a humming mystery some years back.
note: Nz is geologically active with a fault running down the length of the Island. this is from memory, so it may not be precisely accurate. :|
"It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong."
"Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one."
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire

mharratsc
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by mharratsc » Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:02 am

This noise comes and goes- would it be coincidental with the increased solar activity? Also, are the areas where this sound is heard noteworthy for large telluric current pathways?

If so, then this might all add up.
Mike H.

"I have no fear to shout out my ignorance and let the Wise correct me, for every instance of such narrows the gulf between them and me." -- Michael A. Harrington

jjohnson
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by jjohnson » Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:12 pm

Detecting the source of low frequency sounds, particularly at the lower range of human hearing, is very difficult due to its very long wavelength. We are much better able to "pinpoint the direction of a sound if it is up in the range where we are most acute - the voice range, roughly, between approximately 1000 to 4000 Hertz (cycles/s; Hz). If the source is very high, we have difficulty locating it as well, since we rely on small difference in arrival tome of a sound wave using the lateral spacing between our ears. We do not have a vertical spacing between our ears, so no vertical time differential for our brains to differentiate altitude. Dogs are the same - that is why they can be seen to cock their heads to the side to orient upon a higher source of sound - that gets one ear vertically higher than the other and the brain will better derive an altitude for the source thereby.

The source is unlikely from a form of transportation if it lasts for hours - even a one-lung Diesel tug pushing a heavy barge can move many km in a night. The association with 50 Hz mains frequency may not be coincidental if there were exposed transmission lines somewhere nearby. "Nearby" can be relative, of course. And very thin vibrating elements like wires, be they a transmission line or a violin string, are very inefficient radiators of sound, especially low frequency sound. The note that the sound on a website recording sounds like the sound made by blowing over the opening to a bottle could also be a clue. That is another of Helmholtz's many contributions to science - the resonant frequency of an enclosed volume with a relatively narrow opening or neck to the surrounding air. Something as simple as an empty grain storage silo or cylinder with a suitably sized opening could make such a sound of wind were blowing past it. This is speculative on my part, however; having never experienced this in real life, at such a scale or frequency.

From my experience in acoustics, the approach likeliest to yield some clues would be to station a grid of observers (grad students and interns are cheap!) armed with sound level meters, and to station them on a grid perhaps several kilometers apart. Recording readings that are filtered at third-octaves or with narrowband filters might also be useful in trying to pattern match the resultant spectra. But if the source were something long such as a transmission line, it would drop in measured loudness level (neglecting air absorption which is very low at low frequencies) at a rate of about 3 decibels (dB) per doubling of distance (i.e., 1/r), which falloff might be revealed in the resultant grid of data, particularly if the source were within the gridded data.

If the source were a "point" source (small relative to its subtended angle from the observer) then the sound level falls off as 1/r^2, or about 6 dB per distance doubling, and the direction in which the grid showed the increases to occur could zero in toward the source, if it is more or less at ground level.

Sound can carry a very long way when there is a cloud base overhead or a temperature inversion or higher speed winds aloft - a variety of reasons, in other words; almost like mirages in the optical realm. Hills and large expanses of dense vegetation and soft soils can also increase sound absorption through diffraction and acoustical absorption.

If there is nothing obvious like a windfarm within a, say, 30-50 km radius, it may be quite a while, if ever, before it is identified. MAybe there could be an EU-based explanation. I sure don't know.

mharratsc
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by mharratsc » Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:54 pm

That's what I'm thinking. Maybe they can't find it because it's coming from under their feet! I remember a tremor I felt in Okinawa one time that I swear woke me from the 'noise'... but it was actually a vibration I was feeling right through the metal bunk I was in there in Kadena AFB.

In that one story they mentioned about feeling it through their beds, and that's what got me to thinking about subterranean sources for this 'sound'. That, and the fact that they describe it sounding like power lines when heard through an electronic hearing aid.

I dunno...? o.O
Mike H.

"I have no fear to shout out my ignorance and let the Wise correct me, for every instance of such narrows the gulf between them and me." -- Michael A. Harrington

Dotini
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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by Dotini » Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:19 am

This is a logical sounding explanation:

"The areas such as Bristol (a major seaport) and Taos and Woodland, England, where the “big hums” have been reported, may simply have local geologies that very efficiently transmit engine noise from distant man-made sources. Quirks of tectonic movement and water tables may allow – during a window of weeks to years – the development of a resonant standing-wave pattern, in which these hum-locations sit over the high-amplitude nodes. And I guess in the worst case scenario, the sound sources are natural oceanic/tidal or geologic sources, which means you can’t shut them off."
http://hereticalnotions.com/2011/06/12/ho-hum/

Respectfully,
Dotini

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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by jjohnson » Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:01 am

The standing waves idea is quite plausible, and being located at a node would place you at the maximum amplitude ("loudness") location. 56 Hz is comparable to a machine or some other source of energy input) operating at 3360 RPM, for example. That's pretty high for seismic or building structure natural frequencies, for a number of reasons. As stiffness goes up, natural frequency goes up. The planet is not very stiff, structurally speaking. As mass increases, natural frequency goes down. Thus, 2-3 Hz and lower, sometimes much lower, is a more likely range.

An argument might be made that this is a harmonic of a very low driving frequency. Most of the energy in waves with harmonics tend to be in either the fundamental or first mode, or in the first couple of modes, falling in energy content quickly as higher harmonics are measured. So: possible, but not likely. [harmonics of a certain frequency are integer multiples of that frequency, for those for whom the term sounds mysterious, or musical.)

The driving mechanism, whatever it is seems to be a nearly pure tone, if the reports were correct, centered somewhere around 56 Hz. It might be mains-driven at 50 Hz, with frequency-shifting occurring because the geologic substructure resonates better at 56 Hz (awfully high for rock strata). It also seems to be invariant over significant periods of time, coming and going over hours or days, not milliseconds or seconds, and it seems not to wander far, over time, from that one frequency. It would be interesting to find if that frequency were the same in different parts of the world, or in different areas of a country.

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Re: Tiny village is latest victim of the 'The hum'

Unread post by Sparky » Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:55 pm

http://homepages.tesco.net/~john.dawes2/berlin.htm
From the mass of information and observations collected by Hum sufferers over some forty years, there are two important facts which reveal the true complexity of this problem.

A German Hum researcher was given access to two insulated chambers, the first shields acoustic, electrical and magnetic signals.
The EM shielding works excellently for frequencies above 1kHz and the acoustic shielding is very good at all frequencies.

The second chamber was not built with acoustic shielding but does block most ambient noise and it shields all magnetic and electrical fields.
It has the best shielding standards in the world, no chamber has better data, neither the Earth's magnetic field or any EM is detectable within this chamber.

These chambers are most probably the quietest places on Earth and yet the Hum was "heard" in both.

This adds to the mounting evidence that the Hum is neither acoustic or electromagnetic and therefore must have some other cause.

Secondly, there is a small but very significant number of Hum sufferers who are either Partially or Totally Deaf, this is extremely important,for it refutes the often made claim that the Hum is on the threshold of human hearing and is only heard by people with sensitive ears.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -away.html
excerpt:
But what does our Cambridge doctor have to say on the subject? Well, Dr David Baguley, of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, thinks that in many cases, The Hum can be explained by boring old oversensitive hearing.

He says that our hearing has evolved to become especially acute at times of extreme danger or stress, times when, quite literally, you can hear the proverbial pin drop.

His theory is that in some people this hyper-sensitivity remains 'switched on' at all times.

'It becomes a vicious cycle,' he says. 'The more people focus on the noise, the more anxious and fearful they get, the more the body responds by amplifying the sound and that causes even more upset and distress.'

This sounds plausible enough, and indeed Dr Baguley says that he has managed to use relaxation techniques to help people shed the perceived noise that has made their lives a misery.

But this rather everyday explanation will not satisfy everyone.
http://homepages.tesco.net/~john.dawes2/cause.htm
The results of experiments carried out over the past year have confirm that the Hum is caused by gravitational waves. These waves are generated by the high voltage electrical grid supply interacting with the charged particles of the Earth's ionosphere.
The interaction takes place at a height of about 250 miles which allows the waves to cover a very large area. Reports obtained from Hum sufferers show the effects must reach a distance of at least 50 miles from the pylons, and probably much further. No increase in Hum level has been observed in close proximity to the pylons and on any given day, the Hum intensity is the same over 100's of square miles.
"It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong."
"Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one."
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire

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Maxwell Jennings
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Simple-Magnet Question

Unread post by Maxwell Jennings » Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:00 pm

Is there constant movement of free electrons in isolated magnetized materials and that's why they're magnetic? I remember as a child experimenting with using a simple magnet to magnetize metals by simply moving the magnet in close but non-touching circles around the metal object numerous times. Does this rotation action of the magnet start the free electrons moving in the other material, thus creating the magnetic field in the previously non-magnetized metal?

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