It's Christmas day, and I find myself sitting at my laptop, with an urge to write about anything and nothing. I've just returned from dropping my boys off to spend the afternoon with their mother, and my lovely wife is chatting with her family online, and giving an English lesson to her nephews in Russia. The day has turned from simply humid to being quite thundery, and I've been thinking about how amazing sound is.
I've spent the majority of my software development years at a company that creates algorithms for digital hearing aids, so as you might imagine I've absorbed quite a lot of information about sound and the mechanics of the production and perception of sound. I've seen some pretty incredible demonstrations about the manipulation of sound as well. Years before your twin speaker t.v. could emulate surround sound, I saw a physicist demonstrate how he could manipulate the math so that sound would be presented in any part of a room from a single speaker, so that only the person sitting at the exact target spot would hear the sound, and all from a single sound source (I.E. speaker box). I've learned how completely deaf people can adapt to the electrical impulses sent from an implant to different parts of their inner ear and even direct stimulation of the brain tissue, so that their hearing will appear to work almost the same as if they were to have normal hearing. I've seen how sound can even be used as a weapon to create crushing and deafening headaches in a victim, without harm to that person's hearing, and without hurting the people around the victim. Everything has been really cool, and technological, and interesting to learn about, yet nothing man-made (with one exception that I just thought of) has so far come close to the power of an ear-shattering thunderclap occurring right on top of you.
This pattern of thought has all come about because I am sitting in my house, watching the lightning, and listening to the resulting thunder, and even physically feeling the sound rumbling in my ears, sinuses, my chest, and in my belly. Now I could get all technical and talk about the pressure waves that build up and echo back and through themselves to give you that nice rumbling thunder sound, and how a sonic boom occurs when aircraft pierce the sound barrier. None of it though describes the exhilaration of standing only a few meters from where lightning strikes, and actually feeling the sound buffet your body.
For those who've never felt it, it's a moment that occurs quite quickly, yet feels like it happens quite slowly. First you hear a sound not unlike like a hand-clap, except that the sound is incredibly loud, then you hear the rumble develop a fraction of a second after the clap. At the same time, you feel as if you've been pushed away from the direction of the sound. It can hit you so hard that you can feel your breath knocked out of your chest for a moment. When thunder goes off near my home, the windows rattle and the roof creaks in a kind of protest against being buffeted by sound, and it's amazing that even indoors, you can still feel the thunder just as much as you hear it.
Take a look at this picture. This is the man-made 'exception' that I thought of a moment ago, and it shows the rather impressive compression wave made when a battleship fires it's guns. The photo is a beautiful example of how a really loud sound will affect the area around it. If you were standing near the muzzle of one of those guns, the resulting shock-wave would lift you physically off your feet and throw you a good distance away. Amazing when you think about it, and yet it takes a large amount of explosives to do what nature can with a simple lightning charge. Even so, it's pretty impressive what something as simple as sound can do. In the case of a battleship gun, it could move you physically, and when presented as music, or words, or the cry of a child, it can move you emotionally.
I can't imagine what it might be like in a world without sound, which I suppose is why I jumped at the chance to work in an industry that helps to restore sound to those without hearing, and is perhaps part of the reason why I've stayed at it regardless of the personal cost to me over the last few years. I hope that if there ever comes a time when my hearing is impaired, I will still be able to hear the thunder rolling on a stormy day, and that I will never lose that sense of awe and wonder at one of nature's more interesting and exhilarating gifts.
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