Can We Hear Temperature? New Study Says Yes

Relevant video demonstration of how you can hear water temperature when pouring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri_4dDvcZeM

I've recognized this sound of pouring water temperatures since I was young. But also different kinds of liquids, though sometimes I wonder if it is more about the fluid property or about the typical source and sink vessels used with them.

I also think I can hear atmospheric conditions in the area where I grew up. I mean temperature, humidity, and inversion layers in calm conditions. Obviously most people can recognize active weather sounds like wind, rain, or hail. And some can hear fog and snow, while others seem more oblivious to those details. This is an extension of that same thing, where the ambient sound environment is attenuated in a consistent way. It sounds different on a frosty morning versus a hot dry morning versus a cool damp morning with coastal marine layer influence.

I don't know how universal this is for careful observers. I can only do it well where I grew up, and I don't know if that is about length of exposure, age of exposure (more receptive to learning), or the local geography of hills and valleys and distant noise sources giving me more cues.

I hear it in my coffee kettle every day. Boiling starts out as a high pitched fizzy sound. Then just before the kettle shuts off, it is a lower pitch, popping sound. I always assumed the bubbles get bigger as the water heats up causing lower pitch sounds when they pop.

Temperature is just how fast the molecules are vibrating. You heat something up it gets hotter as they move faster and faster.

My bathroom faucet makes a different sound when the water is warm. It's kind of fun to hear it change sound.