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Comment by nchelluri | Hacker News Reader

Somehow this reminded me of the old `sound()` help file from Borland C++ 3.1. I think it was in dos.h.

http://everything2.com/title/7+hertz+-+the+resonant+frequenc...

  /* Emits a 7-Hz tone for 10 seconds.

        True story: 7 Hz is the resonant
        frequency of a chicken's skull cavity.
        This was determined empirically in
        Australia, where a new factory
        generating 7-Hz tones was located too
        close to a chicken ranch: When the
        factory started up, all the chickens
        died.

        Your PC may not be able to emit a 7-Hz tone. */

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Great little anecdote, although I guess you'd call it a hoax? The volume would have to be so loud that any human in the area would be in a great deal of discomfort before it killed nearby chickens.

Birds are weird, basically totally nuts when kept in groups indoors. A little stress could see them all stop eating or peck everyone to death. A less-than-lethal volume could do real damage. A strobelight cannot kill a horse. But set one up in a barn full of horses and they will probably kill themselves. Horses are also nuts.

Have you tried setting up a strobe in a locked room full of people?

That's called a rave. Usually the people involved pay for the privilege of being locked up, as well.

Some people die in that too. People are nuts.

Usually the people are also free to leave whenever, which is not so much the case for the animals.

Why wouldn't the people be free to leave the animals?

Yes, this experiment has been performed many times. It's called a “rave” and people will die from the exhaustion of dancing without eating or drinking anything for days...

Wait, really?

Must be a big chicken, per

http://www.wavelengthcalculator.com/

the wavelength in water (brain matter) of a 7 Hz tone is somewhat over 200 meters. So probably not the skull cavity unless its some kind of chicken themed Godzilla movie.

The problem is likely not the skull but the neck and tendons and stuff oscillating like a bridge.

I guess you could argue that Godzilla is basically a big chicken, or at least a cousin thereof.

[1] http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Godzillasaurus

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theropoda

Why would there be a factory for 7Hz tones?

To sell to Borland!

Large equipment like fans could generate such frequencies. As they've been linked to ghost sightings in humans, I wouldn't be surprised if chickens got spooked by a similar effect:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound#Suggested_relations...

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