I honestly, truly believe in the Half-Life of Sound
It was a theory conceived by Marconi, on his deathbed and probably in the grip of dementia, that Sound never actually dies away, but like radioactive material it just gets less and less without ever disappearing altogether.

The problem is, the theory goes, that we simply don't have the microphone & filtering equipment sensitive enough to pick up, in his example, the Sermon On The Mount.

I know it's probably rubbish, but I do believe it nonetheless, so be careful what you say - that "CHICKEN PISS!!!" you yelled might be heard in 50 generations' time and cause all sorts of trouble. (A bit like that line of Arthur Dent's, about having tremendous difficulty with his lifestyle).




I never met my grandad, but my gran always referred to my sister's boyfriend as "that Jew boy", if that's more the sort of thing.
( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:26, 24 replies)

Nice, but bollocks.

(SSSSSSSSSS, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:30, closed)

I feel compelled
to whack you with a crowbar.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:30, closed)

OK, scratch the "probably" in para 3.

( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:32, closed)

Unless you're serious, in which case I'd ask
Why?
( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:44, closed)

THE CAKE IS A LIE!
Sorry, I don't have any up to date, pop-culture references.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:57, closed)

Well you've completely lost me now :)
(he said, pitifully reduced to using a smiley symbol)
( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:59, closed)

Half Life, was a popular videogame,
wherein you could hit stuff with a crowbar. The developers, Valve, also created Portal, set within the same continuity, which spawned a meme about cakes.
To be fair, this was a few years back.

Long story short, I mean you no harm.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:33, closed)

That's OK, it's aways interesting to find out what codes mean.

( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Sat 27 Apr 2013, 1:09, closed)

You sure your gran wasn't asking a question?

( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:38, closed)

Hur hur! Very Good!
No, being from Notts she'd start every question with "Now then"
( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:44, closed)

Hahahahahaha! Winning!

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:53, closed)

FTW

( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:24, closed)

I clicked for
"that jew boy".
( browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:46, closed)

By a similar token, about 1% of the snow on an un-tuned TV is the energy from the Big Bang.
The problem is to know precisely WHICH 1%...
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:49, closed)

The physics invovled are not that complex.
As sound attenuates the higher than ambient pressure of the wave crest eventually collides with the lower than ambient pressure of the wave trough, cancelling the wave.
There is a measurable half life in ideal conditions but the remaining sound wave quickly becomes indistinguishable from the background of random molecular motion.
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 14:50, closed)

I guess Marconi thought he was covering his arse with the "lack of sufficeintly sensitive equipment" bit
which is perilously close to "you can't prove a negative".

Thanks for the physics though, I know it's a silly theory but somehow the mere idea of sound carrying on comforts me, a bit like how religion works on other feeble-minded people perhaps.
( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:03, closed)

Can't hear you mate.

( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:18, closed)

Why's it a silly theory?

( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Thu 25 Apr 2013, 18:54, closed)

It's not,
it's just that I want to maintain my standing in the scientific community before unveiling my really big theory, the fools.
( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 23:39, closed)

The physics aren't that complex
but those aren't the physics. How can the crest collide with the trough? The whole point of a wave is that they are going at the same speed. Different waves may move at different speeds in some media, but that's dispersion, which is quite different from dissipation.

It's much simpler than that: friction between air molecules mean that as the sound wave propagates, it continually loses energy to heat and reduces in amplitude.
(ubergeekian, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:30, closed)

When you see waves on a beach they all go in the same direction, roughly at right angles
to the coastline but when you look over the side of a ship at sea they're all going in different directions and colliding with each other at various angles.
Who straightens them up and at what distance from the beach does he do it?
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:41, closed)

My mate Alan works the coast between Morecambe and Fleetwood. I've gone with him on his rounds a couple times. We were a fair distance out when he was straightening the waves, about 10 miles or so I'd reckon.
HTH
(Roger McGough-Pipe, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 16:02, closed)

Heh
I like this idea. I'm going to go outside later and shout "PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE ARE ALL BALL BAG CUNTS!" dead loud later, in the hopes than some Star Trek stylee future scientist will one day hear it with his space tricorder or whatever.
(yeswehavenopasties, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 23:44, closed)

That's the spirit!
I've already left a truisms about certain people, to be enjoyed by future generations.
( fred zeppelin II: Electric Boogaloo, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 10:32, closed)