10 Sep
2003
10 Sep
'03
4:02 p.m.
I didn't notice in NASA's story, but on NPR last night they actually said the note was a B-flat, albeit 57 octaves lower than the B-flat near middle-C. I find NASA's attempts to dumb-down such findings by relating them to our everyday experiences very annoying. Can anyone relate to a "sound" wave that is 50+ octaves lower than the threshold of human hearing? Why not call the phenomenon what it is (as you have all clarified): a pressure wave. "Sound," "acoustics" and such terms make no sense without an observer, in this case an observer with the ability to hear the sound. If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does the tree exist? Let's see if Mr. Wizard is a conductor...