A scientist investigating what happened that "it became hard of hearing due to the impact sound that dropped the lid of the tank in the toilet"

Continuing to receive acoustic trauma by being repeatedly exposed to strong sound repeatedly on a daily basis, possibly falling into "noise-induced hearing loss" by damaging the inner ear. While listening to music through earphones and headphones keeps listening to music there is a risk of becoming noise-induced deafness, but it is a planetary scientistPhil MetzgerHe revealed that he was a noisy hearing loss due to "the sound that dropped the lid of the tank in the toilet", and we are investigating what happened by calculating the frequency and the size of the sound.

Thread by @ Dr Philtill: "1. Wanna hear a weird but true story? (I have a few minutes to type, so here goes). I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a [...]"
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When Metzger finished repairing the interior of the toilet tank and tried to return the lid to the tank, he slid his hand and hit the rim of the toilet. The distance that the lid fell was about 20 cm, and ceramic toilet bowls and lids were never chipped or cracked, but at that time the "sound" sounded.

Just listening to this situation can not be heard as something fatal happened, but at the moment the sound sounded, Mr. Metzger was shocked and left the toilet lying down and kneeling in the living room It was. Metzger, who could not understand what happened, gradually noticed the unusual identity of the body. When Mr. Metzger made a voice saying "Commcheck 1, 2, 3" like a voice test conducted in the Space Shuttle communication system, the voice is "KazooI heard it sounds like I was talking through. " Kazu is a musical instrument that emits a voice while speaking in the mouth, resonates and vibrates and plays performance.

byJessica Flavia

"It was unbelievable that" The cover of a tank that dropped just 20 centimeters gives serious damage to hearing "When Metzger sees the frequency from the speed of the ceramic sound and the size of the lid of the toilet, the generated sound is 3.5 kilohertz It was speculated that there was. The sound of 3.5 kilohertz is in the audible range of the person. Because somewhat higher frequencies were sought when calculating the size of the toilet bowl with the smaller inner side, Metzger saw that the two frequencies harmonized to create a specific wavelength.

Most of the energy of the impact appeared in the form of "sound" because the rim of the toilet never cracked or broken. The tank lid is recessed like an antenna, Metzger says that energy was focused on his face by the collision of the lid and the toilet bowl near the face.

After that, energy is in the ears Sensory organs that control hearingCochlea. Since the basement membrane in the cochlea varies in frequency depending on the frequency, the energy of "specific frequency" generated by the lid of the toilet concentrates in a specific part of the basement membrane, and Metzger said it was damaged That's it.

Although hearing was slightly returning the next day, the talking speech still sounded like "a sound resonating through Kazu." Metzger received advice from an audiologist 's friend "If you do not improve within 48 hours, damage will stay forever, so go to the hospital", but Mr. Metzger was fortunate that he recovered after 48 hours about.

byLinus Nylund

Metzger said that he was responsible for safety of the laboratory including hearing protection when working at the Kennedy Space Center, but as to the potential dangers of damaging hearing by dropping the lid of the toilet tank He said that he had never thought about it.

Calculating about the sound that sounded from the edge of the toilet bowl, I heard that the magnitude of the sound that bounced off at a speed of 1 / 20th of a second and moved a distance of 50 cm was 138 dB. At 140 dBNear the jet engineIt is said to be equal to the sound of, so this can be said to be quite large. In addition, the fact that the width of the frequency was narrow also resulted in concentration of shocks and bad influence on the ear. The fact that the surface of the material was hard and the time before the energy became a sound was short, and the fact that there was no damage on the material is also considered as a cause to produce intense sound. "In order to create a safer toilet bowl, we need to use energy to destroy molecular connections and shatter shocks," explained Metzger.