K7NT said, in part: "Have you ever been in a really noisy room for a
long period, and then had the noise source stop? Remember how absolutely
relieving that can be? Loud noise is inherently stressful."
Actually, there is a tiny muscle in the ear. When loud noises occur, this
muscle tenses. The tension causes the bones of the middle ear to become
slightly decoupled, reducing the volume of sound reaching the inner ear.
Presumably, if you keep the volume too high on the radio, this muscle is
working all the time.
BTW, the brain automatically activates this muscle a fraction of a second
before you begin speaking. This protects the inner ear from the loud volume
of your own voice. (Birds use the same mechanism to keep from deafening
themselves while singing.)
You can take advantage of the brain's proactive protection. For example, if
you are going to use a hammer, you can protect your ear from the percussive
impact. Just hum to yourself before swinging the hammer. The act of
humming (or anything else that causes the vocal cords to vibrate) will also
trigger that little muscle in the ear, activating the "attenuator".
-- Eric K3NA
scace@uu.net
--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
|