Humming right along in Windsor, Ontario
In Windsor, Ontario, some people are troubled by a persistent low-level hum, the origins of which no one has been able to detect:
Those who hear it have compared it to a fleet of diesel engines idling next to your home or the pulsation of a subwoofer at a concert. Others report it rattling their windows and spooking their pets.
Known as the Windsor Hum, this sound in Windsor, Ontario, near Detroit, is unpredictable in its duration, timing and intensity, making it all the more maddening for those affected.
“You know how you hear of people who have gone out to secluded places to get away from certain sounds or noises and the like?” Sabrina Wiese posted in a private Facebook group dedicated to finding the source of the noise.
I’m tempted to say that the people who can hear it are especially “woke” and tuned in to the Music of the Spheres. But I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate any levity about this, which seems to really trouble a large number of residents and which must be at least as annoying as tinnitus (which is plenty annoying).
I know I feel something similar when riding in cars of recent vintage if just one of the windows is open slightly. There’s a weird, hard-to-describe pressure phenomenon that happens to my ears and just about drives me mad until that window is closed or a second window is opened a crack to balance whatever is going on. Not everyone perceives it, either (maybe half and half?), as I’ve learned when driving with companions.
The Windsor problem has been studied, but the Times article doesn’t really get into what was found. I wondered whether it was a case of mass hysteria, and I had to go to the source to learn, for example, that the sound is both real and measurable (neither of which the Times made clear):
Several conclusions were made by the researchers following several months of data collection: (i) the long duration of the excitations were not consistent with earthquake or other seismic activities, (ii) the prominent frequency of the excitationwas approximately 35 Hz, and due to the speed of the propagating energy, the excitation was an airborne noise source and not a ground vibration.
It was localized to an industrial area known as Zug Island, but that’s as much as authorities seem to be able to determine. Not everyone in Windsor hears the sound, although characteristics of “hearers” don’t seem to follow any known pattern, either. It is intermittent, which means that “hearers” are unlikely to become accustomed to it.
And Windsor is not alone:
Hums similar to Windsor’s have been reported in at least a dozen communities worldwide, including in Australia, England and Scotland, the study said. In the United States, high-profile hums have been reported in Taos, N.M., and Kokomo, Ind.
Researchers studied the Taos hum in 1993 but did not pinpoint a source. Karina Armijo, the town’s director of marketing and tourism, said in a telephone interview that complaints had subsided.
“I have never heard the Taos hum, but I’ve heard stories of the Taos hum,” she said. “There’s not been a lot of buzz about it in the last few years.”
I wonder if Ms. Armijo is aware of the little pun she made in that last sentence, or if it was unconscious.
The automobile sound is caused by a combination of the Strouhal effect at the partly open window turning it into a low frequency whistle; and a Helmholtz resonance.
The air trapped in the otherwise sealed auto cabin acts like a gas spring, and the air oscillating through the cracked window acts like a gas mass. So a mass connected to a spring has a strong characteristic resonant frequency. Moving the cracked window slightly changes the freq. Opening a window on the opposite side on the cabin makes the cabin too leaky to have a good resonance.
This could be exactly what is happening with Windsor or Taos if there is some natural structure with a very large cavity connected to a wind blown surface via an opening.
_______
There is a small scientific field of infrasonics, usually 10 Hz or less, with outdoor microphones that can detect the sound of nuclear testing, meteors, and the like. In some cases they can detect sound waves making multiple passes circling around the globe.
Our nuclear ballistic missile submarines used to communicate via ELF radio waves transmitted from a 100 mile long antenna buried in Wisconsin. That’s been abandoned, and I don’t know what replaced it; but these low frequency acoustic waves can travel immense distances. If our governments were doing this for some military reason, they’re not going to tell us about it.
Under perfect conditions, truly weird vortexes can be spun by prevailing winds and tall buildings.
Indeed, the local weather near the Niagara Falls has changed so much that the ice and snow pattern has shifted.
Naturally any sound pattern involved will be at a very low ( and long ) frequency.
The same effect is used with the basic mouth whistle, a vortex chamber being at the heart of its function.
Those not there at the right time and at the right spots think that the witnesses are dreaming, of course.
Low frequencies also travel farther. This provides a visual disconnect from the true source of the ultra-low sound, which, in this case, is most likely to be cold air shooting down through the Detroit River.
It’s whales talking to elephants through the hollow earth.
Cornflour Says:
February 23rd, 2018 at 12:07 am
It’s whales talking to elephants through the hollow earth.
* * *
No, no.
It’s turtles, all the way down.
TommyJay Says:
February 22nd, 2018 at 4:38 pm
The automobile sound is caused by a combination of the Strouhal effect at the partly open window turning it into a low frequency whistle; and a Helmholtz resonance.
* * *
Thanks for the science lesson; I knew there was something causing the resonance (and I am in Neo’s camp on this one), but not the physics of it.
FWIW, I have seen articles claiming that people who persistently ride with the windows down (to the point of creating the hum) can injure their hearing.
I’m going with The Government behind Door One, personally.
It’s whales talking to elephants through the hollow earth.
Earth is hollow, but what if it is also Flat?
Thanks for the science lesson; I knew there was something causing the resonance (and I am in Neo’s camp on this one), but not the physics of it.
FWIW, I have seen articles claiming that people who persistently ride with the windows down (to the point of creating the hum) can injure their hearing.
no wonder I hate that noise.