Have you ever felt like getting rid of all the noise around you and being in peace surrounded by the silence? ‘The World’s Quietest Room’ as the name suggests absorbs 99.9% of the sound. this anechoic chamber is located in Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis. The level of silence can be described as a kind of silence that will make you hear your own heart beating and blood rushing! Even though you can feel like you can live in this place and this will be your sanctuary, you will only be able to survive in this room for at most 45 minutes. What is the mystery behind this space? How place like this even exist? Let’s dive in!
Creating the World’s Quietest Room: From Idea to Reality
Orfield Laboratories wanted a place to study human behavior toward extreme quietness. So they tried to build a space where external sound is nearly nonexistent.
To achieve that various architectural elements were considered. To absorb sound waves and minimize the reflection within the room, walls are composed of 3.3-foot-thick fiberglass acoustic wedges. Additionally, there are double layers of insulated steel and walls reinforced with concrete that is one foot thick to further enhance soundproofing. To prevent the vibration caused by footsteps, suspended mesh is added to the floor.
As a result, this anechoic chamber absorbs 99.9% of the sound
Impact of absolute silence
Even though you might feel absolute silence is great, there are consequences. If you try to stay in a Sonic vacuum(environment that is free from sound) too long, it can lead to disorientation in the brain. The human brain is used to hearing voices and be surrounded by sound. So in a sonic vacuum brain starts to make voices which can lead to hallucination. As the few minutes pass you will start to hear things that happen inside of your body, heartbeat, bones grinding and digestion which can be really unsettling.
Turned out that the psychological and physical effects caused by a sonic vacuum are complicated.
Guinness-Worthy Silence
This remarkable room is able to gain the title of ‘The World’s Quietest Place’ due to it’s incredibly low levels of decibels (units that measure sound). It measures around -20 decibels, and sometimes it goes even lower, reaching about -24.9 decibels. With this Guinness title, this room was able to gain worldwide attention.
Utilization of The Chamber: From Motorcycles to Outer Space
While the idea of sitting in such a quiet room might seem strange to some people, the room is actually very useful for many things other than just being silent. Companies use quietness for product testing
Companies use extreme quietness to test products like Harley Davidson making motorcycles quieter or checking the sound quality of audio equipment. Even NASA uses similar rooms to help astronauts get ready for the silence of space.
This chamber provides a space where scientists can conduct experiments to learn more about how sound works (acoustics) and how it affects our minds and behavior (psychology of sound).
While some people have hailed silence as “golden,” this chamber can make us realize how much we, humans rely on noise. This chamber is not only useful for the scientific community but to modern society, to appreciate the world that we live in which is surrounded by sound.
