Saturday, March 7, 2009

Noise Only Teenagers Can Hear (Trainhorns.net)

Predictable jokes to the side (e.g. the sound of cash coming out of a wallet, the sound of pizza being delivered...), there are, apparently, sounds that are only audible to young ears.

Clever young people in the UK have turned this noise (which is also used as a deterrent in some stores) into a ringtone so they can fool teachers.

US students long ago learned to put their phones on vibrate to do much the same thing. I suspect it is the thrill of 10-15 students simultaneously getting a text message while in class as the teacher drones obliviously on that makes it worth the effort.

You can take the test yourself but you will likely need a teenager around to tell you what the noise sounds like. To be honest, if I concentrated quite hard on listening while in a quiet room, I think I heard a faint buzzing. In a normal situation, however, I am sure I would not even notice it.
  • NB: This DOES NOT mean my ears are old, by the way. They are "mature" ears.

Train Horns

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

yup, it works quite well - heard about mosquito tones about 18 months ago, got my older son to download the ringtones - there are MANY on phonezoo.com - and only he and my younger son could hear them, and i could not hear a single thing...

he then brought it to school and tried it out (at my request) - teachers could not hear it with the exception of one young history teacher (about 25 years old)...

really fascinating stuff....they should BLAST this sound in shopping malls starting at 7pm ;)

Anonymous said...

I can hear it very clearly and I am 52 years old

Kristan J. Wheaton said...

Congratulations! You are the only 50+ to say they could still hear it! (No Death Metal for you, apparently...).

Kris