Mark Megahan
A little silence is something all of those living in the hustle and bustle of today’s society can use. Microsoft pushed that envelope to the extreme and learned a terrifying lesson. While it’s great for test instruments, total lack of ambient sound is something humans can’t stand. At least, not for more than an hour.
The sound of silence
There’s a huge difference between comfortable quiet and total silence. Back in 2015, Microsoft decided they needed a special environment for “ultra-sensitive tests” on their high tech innovations. One which was totally free of extraneous noise.
Inside the Redmond, Washington, corporate HQ, Microsoft set up an “anechoic chamber” that earned them a slot in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the quietest place on the planet.”
The way scientists and engineers measure how “loud” a sound is relies on measuring air pressure variations. Since it’s impossible to eliminate the sound of the individual air molecules moving around at random, that’s the only sound which keeps Microsoft from achieving perfect silence.
Since they can’t eliminate it, they measured it. Air movement without HVAC, fans, or anything else moving it around registers -20.35 dBA. Virtually everything else in the universe is louder than that.
Putting that reading of almost silence into perspective, the point where human ears won’t notice a sound is at 0 decibels. Your average library reading room would register a comfortable 40.
The pain levels start around 125 and you don’t want to stand next to a jet engine without ear protection at 140. Anything close to zero would make most people start to hear things they never heard before. The lower you go, the more terrifying it gets.
Hear your bones grind
It only takes a few moments of near perfect silence to make test engineers uncomfortable. The most anyone has been able to stand it is an hour. The lack of sound becomes disorienting and debilitating.
Almost as soon as the door closes, “you’ll already start to hear your own heartbeat. A few minutes after that, you can hear your own bones grinding and blood flowing.” All the sound from the outside has been eliminated but you’re stuck with the ones you came in with. “The endless sounds of your own body.”
As time goes on, “the total and utter silence will gradually turn into an unbearable ringing in your ears.” For starters.
“This will likely lead you to lose your balance due to the lack of reverberation in the room, which impairs your spatial awareness.” It’s not fun, those who have experienced it relate. Hundraj Gopal, principal designer of the chamber admits, “when you turn your head, you can even hear that motion. You can hear yourself breathing and it sounds somewhat loud.”
It took two years to precision design the interior of the space. “Made up of six layers of concrete and steel, it’s a bit disconnected from the surrounding building. An array of vibration-damping springs are situated below.”
“Inside, fiberglass wedges are mounted on the floor, ceiling, and walls to break up sound waves before they have a chance to bounce back into the room.” Most people can handle up to 45 minutes of complete silence. The record hovers at an hour.
