3 ms·

I have heard 'the hum'. In my house in western Connecticut, at night when nothing else is on, everything is quiet. I'm far from the ocean. There is no industry

I have heard 'the hum'. In my house in western Connecticut, at night when nothing else is on, everything is quiet. I'm far from the ocean. There is no industry near by. No trucks. Nothing. There is a hum... maybe about 40 - 70Hz. It's creepy the first time you hear it. It seemed to be coming from the ground, and the walls. I moved to the bedroom it was there too. It's very quiet. You can't hear it if anything else is on. If you say this to people they think you are crazy. I've had my ears checked for other reasons and they are fine. I'm not on any medications, or anything like that. The hum is not ocean wave vibration forces. The hum is constant and consistent. It sounds of mechanical precision. I have little doubt the sound is from a man made object. From Wikipedia: "The Hum" History There has been little mainstream attention. Only a handful of articles have been published in scientific literature, including: Leventhall, 2004,[15] 2003;[8] Cowan, 2003;[16] Mullins & Kelly, 1998, 1995;[4] Broner, 1978;[17] Vasudevan & Gordon, 1977.[18] Others publications include: Frosch, 2013,[19] Deming, 2004;[20] Fox, 1989;[21] Wilson, 1979;[5] Hanlon, 1973.[22] The Hum has been repo rted worldwide.[12] The World Hum Database and Mapping Project was launched in December 2012, in order to build detailed mappings of hum locations and to provide a database of Hum-related data for professional and independent researchers.[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum

creshal 12y ago
> There is a hum... maybe about 40 - 70Hz. I've always assumed it was coming from the power grid – it's the same frequency range, and gods know what metallic stuff in the walls could vibrate in resonance to it.
foobarge 12y ago
I hear the hum as well sometimes, in different locations (my home office, separate from the house - here I can hear it during the day) or in the house, at night. When heard, if I move my head a little bit, the sounds goes away and usually comes back a second later. I thought this was a nearby engine/motor (there are a lot of houses with installed heat pumps in the neighborhood), but as I've read the Wikipedia article, my money is now on tinnitus. I've been running a FFY analyzer when I hear it and it's never been able to pick anything up actually airborne, nor any vibration through anything solid that would be picked up by a microphone.
- ronnier 12y ago
  But it doesn't explain why I can't hear it in just as quite places in different locations. If it was tinnitus wouldn't I here it in other places as well?
simon_vetter 12y ago
Any decent size transformer (or AC motor) in or near your house would hum at 60Hz (plus a bunch of harmonics). The big one on that utility pole down the street seems like a perfect candidate.
vanderZwan 12y ago
The problem I have with "the hum" is that it is framed as if there is one hum, where I see no reason to presume there couldn't be thousands of different causes for thousands of different low frequency hums. The only constant I would expect to find is that some people are more sensitive to low-frequency noises than others.

creshal 12y ago

> There is a hum... maybe about 40 - 70Hz. I've always assumed it was coming from the power grid – it's the same frequency range, and gods know what metallic stuff in the walls could vibrate in resonance to it.

foobarge 12y ago

I hear the hum as well sometimes, in different locations (my home office, separate from the house - here I can hear it during the day) or in the house, at night. When heard, if I move my head a little bit, the sounds goes away and usually comes back a second later. I thought this was a nearby engine/motor (there are a lot of houses with installed heat pumps in the neighborhood), but as I've read the Wikipedia article, my money is now on tinnitus. I've been running a FFY analyzer when I hear it and it's never been able to pick anything up actually airborne, nor any vibration through anything solid that would be picked up by a microphone.

ronnier 12y ago
But it doesn't explain why I can't hear it in just as quite places in different locations. If it was tinnitus wouldn't I here it in other places as well?

simon_vetter 12y ago

Any decent size transformer (or AC motor) in or near your house would hum at 60Hz (plus a bunch of harmonics). The big one on that utility pole down the street seems like a perfect candidate.

vanderZwan 12y ago

The problem I have with "the hum" is that it is framed as if there is one hum, where I see no reason to presume there couldn't be thousands of different causes for thousands of different low frequency hums. The only constant I would expect to find is that some people are more sensitive to low-frequency noises than others.