4 ms·

On a related note, you can hear sounds that displace your eardrums on the order of an atomic diameter. At least that is something I heard years ago, a quick sea

On a related note, you can hear sounds that displace your eardrums on the order of an atomic diameter. At least that is something I heard years ago, a quick search turned up this StackExchange question [1] so there may be some truth to this, I did however not read the answers too carefully. They actually seems to suggest that the threshold is even quite a bit smaller which makes me somewhat cautious of the claim, but then again you are essentially integrating over really many atoms in your eardrum getting displaced together. [1] https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/147826/how-much-air-needs-to-be-displaced-to-generate-an-audible-sound https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/147826/how-much-...

jiveturkey 4y ago
> something I heard
- danbruc 4y ago
  Pun not intended but noticed while typing.
sandworm101 4y ago
>> sounds that displace your eardrums on the order of an atomic diameter. That isn't all that surprising really. This isn't one atom moving a tiny bit. It is billions and billions of atoms all shifting back and forth together.
- jiveturkey 4y ago
  AIUI, we "hear" that motion. It's not that it takes billions+ of atoms in order to effect a motion at all, it's that the amount of motion here, _of the sensor_, is just an atomic diameter. If it takes billions of atoms to move the sensor, the sensor itself is comprised of trillions+ (I'd guess, decillions+) of atoms. That we can "hear" the movement of just a single atomic diameter in distance of such a relatively massive structure doesn't seem amazing? I'm even more amazed that with such sensitivity, we aren't inundated with the noise from that, and can still hear normal volume sounds, whose movement must be absolutely massive compared to a single atomic diameter. I guess that effect is similar to the eye's. We cannot see a single photon in the presence of daylight. That only works in a darkened (pitch black in this case) room.

jiveturkey 4y ago

> something I heard

danbruc 4y ago
Pun not intended but noticed while typing.

sandworm101 4y ago

>> sounds that displace your eardrums on the order of an atomic diameter. That isn't all that surprising really. This isn't one atom moving a tiny bit. It is billions and billions of atoms all shifting back and forth together.

jiveturkey 4y ago
AIUI, we "hear" that motion. It's not that it takes billions+ of atoms in order to effect a motion at all, it's that the amount of motion here, _of the sensor_, is just an atomic diameter. If it takes billions of atoms to move the sensor, the sensor itself is comprised of trillions+ (I'd guess, decillions+) of atoms. That we can "hear" the movement of just a single atomic diameter in distance of such a relatively massive structure doesn't seem amazing? I'm even more amazed that with such sensitivity, we aren't inundated with the noise from that, and can still hear normal volume sounds, whose movement must be absolutely massive compared to a single atomic diameter. I guess that effect is similar to the eye's. We cannot see a single photon in the presence of daylight. That only works in a darkened (pitch black in this case) room.