Comment by Steve44 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Steve44 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I'm not sure it's related to these humming reports but there is a lot more ambient noise than most people appreciate.

I live about five miles from Heathrow airport. Occasionally I will have planes taking off over our house which is fairly loud and sometimes I can hear them powering up and taking off - that's quiet and distant and I can't always hear it.

When the Icelandic volcano closed the airspace a few years ago I was stuck by how quiet it was outside. Not just the lack of identifiable take-off noises but I became aware there had been an imperceptible continuous rumble. This came back when the airspace opened.

There are always aircraft in the skies, I presume this low level noise is the culmination of many distant jet engines.

Would "the hum" not be noticed in a lot more areas if it were caused by jet engines?

Note that there is some variance in the volume of air traffic: weekend nights tend to be a lot slower than weeknights. Same for Christmas Day (and the night before and after). If "the hum" was caused by jet engines, this variance should be noticed too. The risk of misattribution is considerable, however, as industrial and other activities also tend to wind down during weekends and holidays.

> Would "the hum" not be noticed in a lot more areas if it were caused by jet engines?

Yes, I agree hence the way I worded the starting of the comment. It was more an observation that there is a lot more noise going on than is immediately obvious and noticeable.

Regarding these hums some people are reporting, given that they say ear plugs if anything increase the effect I think it is likely internally generated like the various causes of tinnitus. Possibly some infra-sound/vibration is directly detectable by some people in a similar way to magmatism is by some animals and supposedly some people. A second thought is it could be triggering / resonating something in the ear so you are physically hearing the sounds, like when you rub your eyes you see flashes. Thirdly perhaps it is purely psychological.

I've not read much about the hum phenomena and not knowingly personally experienced it my thoughts are just that, thoughts.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com