constructing an infrasound generator

ILIANA KLIANIcArc2030: techNIcAL dIssertAtIoN

word couNt: 5188 supervIsor: johN beLL

ucA, cANterbury schooL of ArchItecture

grAduAte dIpLomA IN ArchItecture - stAge II

CoNstructINg AN INfrAsouNd GeNerAtor expLore the ArchItecture of NoN-vIsuAL eNvIroNmeNts usINg souNd.

CONTENTS

SOURCES OF INFRASOUNDNatural SourcesMan made Sources

PERCEPTION OF INFRASOUNDHuman Reaction to InfrasoundAnimal Reaction to Infrasound

AREAS OF APPLICATIONModern ScienceSonic Weapons

INFRASOUND SPECULATIONS

RELATED WORKSSoundless music

HOW TO BUILD ANINFRASOUND GENERATORStep-by-stepThe componentsthe motorthe crankshaftthe chamber 14 - 15the diaphragmthe base

TRIALSFirst TrialSecond TrialThird Trial

RECORDINGS

SELF ASSESSMENT

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

INFRASOUND

THE EXPERIMENT

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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1 ILIANA KLIANI_INfrAsouNd geNerAtor

There is a vast amount of information regarding the presence and uses of infrasound, though only a few exemplar methods to instigate these low frequencies; it would seem that they contradict each other and are not very instructive for the pur-poses of my experimental research. Moreover, the awareness of the hazards involved in case of an experiment going wrong made the process of determining the safest solution so much harder. Lastly, the importance of the size of the installa-tion in relation to the size of the space in which it is being applied, all is significant for the audi-ence’s ability to perceive and understand this in-frasonic environment.

There are only a few artistic projects relating to the field of infrasound which would be suitable for the purpose of my experiment, still they are sim-ply informative of the aims and the results rather the process. There have been many other stud-ies from other areas such as medicine, weaponry and noise reduction. There are many different opinions and a lot of speculation in the field of in-frasound that could be explored under the scope of this paper.

This paper focuses on modifying the perception of sound and space by producing low frequen-cies. The aim here is to manufacture a device able to produce infrasound to provoke feelings of unease and to upset the sense of balance. In Victorian times this was achieved by environ-mental change, such as temperature, humidity, air movement, and electromagnetic fields that have been associated with haunted spaces.

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION


Sound is a waveform made up of pressure waves, which oscillate in the air. The number of oscil-lations created by a sound wave can be meas-ured by counting the amount of cycles the sound wave makes per second. This is known as its fre-quency and its measuring unit is Hertz (Hz). Low frequencies have a long wave length, and high frequencies have a short wave length (Table 1). The human auditory range is between 20Hz and 20,000Hz (1Hz = 1cycle per second). (Sargeant, 2001)Infrasound is the type of sonic vibrations that are lower than the human ear can hear. That is, they have lower frequencies and longer wavelengths than the sound waves people can perceive. It is a sound with a frequency lower than 20 Hz, which is the standard limit of human hearing. Hearing becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency decreases, so for humans to perceive infrasound, the sound pressure must be sufficiently high. (Le Pichon, Blanc, Hauchecorne, 2010)

Sound range Frequency Wave length

Infrasound 1 Hz < ƒ < 20 Hz 1 Hz = 1125 ft = 342,9 m

Hearable sound 20 Hz < ƒ < 16 kHz 20 Hz = 56 ft = 17 m

The primary organ for detecting infrasound is the ear; however at different frequencies sound can affect the whole body and, at higher levels, it is possible to feel infrasound vibrations in almost any part of the body. These frequencies below 20Hz are known to be unique and fascinating with their features. Humans are being affected physi-cally by these low frequencies, while exposure to infrasound is documented to disturb the sense of balance.

Even though humans can’t hear infrasound, many animals such as dogs, elephants, giraffes, hippos, tigers, pigeons, and so on can hear infra-sound waves.

INFRASOUND


“Infrasound sometimes results naturally from earthquakes, waterfalls, melting of glacial ice, tidal waves, aurora borealis (0.1 - 0.01 Hz), so-lar flares, solar winds, hurricanes, thunderstorms, the jet stream (30-40Hz), winds in caverns (20-30 Hz.), etc.” (Cody, 1997)

Natural explosions from volcanoes also produce infrasonic waves. When Krakatoa exploded, lift-ing an entire island 100 miles into the air, windows were shattered 1,000 miles away from ground zero. The shock waves, affecting both earth and atmosphere, continued for hours. (Mehta, 2009)“Waves of infrasound are invisible, but slam into living tissue and physical structures with great force. The sensation vibrates internal organs and buildings, flattening objects as the sonic wave strikes.” (Thomas, 2004)

Apart from natural causes, there are animals that produce and use the infrasonic range. Elephants emit frequencies as low as 14Hz and use it to communicate at distances of up to 10km. (PIC-TURE) Observations of elephant behavior indi-cate that they responded to the waves passing through the ground before they heard them in the air. This is confirmed by the fact that waves trav-el faster through solid materials. (Langbauer in C.L.O, 2009) Other animals such as whales, rhi-nos, giraffes and tigers also produce some very low frequency sounds.

It has also been suggested that certain animals use infrasound even if they do not have the ability to produce such low frequencies. Migrating birds use naturally generated infrasound from sources such as turbulent airflow over mountain ranges, as a navigational aid. In general, species that have the skill of homing can clearly detect the Earth’s magnetic field direction and can use it as a compass. (Alden, About.com)

INFRASOUND

SOURCES OF INFRASOUND

Natural Sources


Infrasound can also be generated by man-made processes such as sonic booms and explosions (both chemical and nuclear). Nuclear explosions have been known to give off infrasonic waves at frequencies as low as one every hundred sec-onds (0.01 Hz). (Le Pichon, Blanc, Hauchecorne, 2010) Explosives, such as atomic weapons, pro-duce infrasound. The first blast is on ground zero and its destruction. The second one is a powerful, speeding, sonic wave of reduced air pressure. This force blast travels at great distances away from ground zero and not many survive its de-structive path.

Man-made structures, such as engines, cars, buses, trains, motorcycles, and airplanes also produce infrasound. Cody (1997) noted that pi-lots exposed to infrasonic vibrations of jet chassis experience a reduction in “vision, speech, intel-ligence, orientation, equilibrium, ability to accu-rately discern situations, and make reasonable decisions.”

Many churches and cathedrals have organ pipes that are so long they emit infrasound. Infrasound has been known to cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. Since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel that supernatural events are taking place. Home appliances such as hair dryers, oven toast-ers, televisions, personal computers may pro-duce infrasound. Surprisingly, large bridges can also be the source of infrasonic pulses when they sway as well as wind turbines.

INFRASOUND

Man Made Sources


Twenty Hertz is considered the normal low fre-quency limit of hum hearing. Measurements have shown that when pure sine waves are reproduced at very high sound pressure, the ear will be able to identify infrasound down to about 12 Hz. It is still possible to register the single sound oscilla-tions below 10 Hz however there is pressure in the eardrums. (Olson, 1967)

Different pitches and intensities of infrasound can be perceived when there are changes in pressure and vibration. Studies have shown that a very low frequency sound, which is inaudible to some peo-ple, may be loud to others.

Sense Perception

- Ear - Feeling of pressure- Skin - Pulsation & vibra-tion- Viscera - Resonance vibration- Sinusses, Bowel - Barometric variation- Eye - Vibration

The human perception with cross-modal senses

giddiness, skin flushing, and body tingling.” Following this, a person undergoes “vertigo, anxiety, extreme fatigue, throat pressure, and respiratory dysfunction.”

• 60 - 73 Cycles Per Second (Hz) - “Coughing, severe sternal pressure, choking, excessive salivation, extreme swallowing pains, inability to breathe, headache, and abdominal pain” were present. In the post exposure phase test subjects continued to cough, exhibit fatigue and have skin flushing for up to four hours.

• 1 - 10 Cycles Per Second (Hz) - “Lethal in-frasonic pitch lies in the 7 cycle range. Small amplitude increases affect human behavior in this range. Intellectual activity is first inhibited, blocked and then destroyed. As the amplitude is increased, several disconcerting responses have been noted. These responses begin a complete neurological interference. The ac-tion of the medulla is physiologically blocked and its autonomic functions cease.” (Vassila-tos, 1996)

“Infrasound is especially dangerous due to its strong vibrations and oscillations. Infrasound waves hug the ground travelling long distances without losing strength, and are unstoppable. Not much amplitude is needed to produce negative effects in the human body and even mild infra-sound exposure requires several hours, or even days, to reverse symptoms.” (Thomas, 2004)According to Takano (2004-2011) low frequen-cy noise generated by some wind turbines has caused “wind-turbine syndrome” (headaches, dizziness, nausea) in humans and other animals nearby.

Studies show different ways in which infrasound affects the human body. As infrasound pitches, or cycles per second, decrease, deadly effects on the body increase. Infrasound disrupts the nor-mal functioning of the middle and inner ear lead-ing to nausea, imbalance, impaired equilibrium, immobilization, and disorientation. Exposure to even mild doses of infrasound can lead to illness. Increased intensities of infrasound can result in death. (Thomas, 2004)

Following are a few examples of low frequency (below 500 Hz) and infrasound (below 20 Hz.) levels and their effects:

• 100 Cycles Per Second (Hz) - At this level, a person experiences irritation, “mild nausea,

INFRASOUND

PERCEPTION OF INFRASOUND

Human Reaction to Infrasound


Animals have been known to perceive the infra-sonic waves going through the earth by natural disasters and can use these as an early warning.

“Mammals, birds, insects, and spiders can detect sonic waves. Most can feel the movement in their bodies, although snakes and salamanders put their ears to the ground in order to perceive it.” (Kenneally, 2004)There is a wide record with stories about the strange reactions of animals before natural dis-asters, however it seems that the phenomenon has been hard for scientists to pin down. Accord-ing to Christine Kenneally (2004) on reports from the Sri Lanka tsunami, it’s possible that the ani-mals may have heard the earthquake before the tsunami hit land. Animals were reported to flee the area hours before the actual tsunami hit. In-frasonic sound waves were likely generated by the underwater rupture, which were sensed by the animals.

INFRASOUND

Animal Reaction to Infrasound


Infrasound is currently being utilized in various fields. One of the most recent is its study in medi-cine. The medical use of infrasound therapy is useful in treating chronic pain and arteriosclero-sis where vibrations are course through the body.

Another major use in modern science is in the early detection of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and catastrophic storms such as tornados. Infra-sonic detectors have been installed all around the world in order to observe the atmosphere.

Infrasound is a powerful force, governments have tested and used them as a weapon of war. Dis-cussions of the subject invariably throw up the usual suspects of conspiracy theories including Tesla, the Nazis, the US military’s ‘black’ research projects.

One of the pioneers in infrasonic research was French scientist Vladimir Gavreau. In the 1960’s, during World War I, and being in the business of military research, he attempted to build a low-frequency weapon after he was accidentally ex-posed to infrasound. Gavreau came about with infrasonic waves when he and his lab assistants were experiencing disconcerting nausea and

pain in their eardrums. During their investiga-tion of the issue there was no detection of toxic fumes and no audible sound was picked up, so he concluded it was infrasound. Gavreau devot-ed himself to studying the effects of infrasound on humans and designing sonic weapons. One of his experiments was an infrasonic whistle, which was essentially an oversized pipe of 1.3m in di-ameter producing an infrasonic pitch of 37 cycles per second. (Vassilatos, 1996)During World War II, the Nazis used the same type of sound like boom car owners are using today. Hitler conducted noise experiments on prisoners and actually tortured them with high-in-tensity/low-frequency noise. In WW II, the Nazis

didn’t have the technology of powerful amplifiers that we do today. They developed a weapon that produced high intensity sound powered by “com-pressed air.” Nazi engineers prototyped a revolu-tionary sonic ‘cannon’, which fired a shock wave strong enough to bring down a plane.” (Boulware, 2000)

INFRASOUND

AREAS OFAPPLICATION

Modern Science

Sonic Weapons


In general high and low sound frequencies have been subject of imaginative speculation. On one side there are conspiracy theories that express these frequencies as the basis of secret weap-ons research for covert operations, mind control and other collusions. Others, more idealistic, as-sociates these frequencies with meditative states and magical technology. Jack Sargeant (2001) explains that this is referring to “the builders of ancient monuments and the secret of levitating blocks of stone by their mastery of sound; pow-ers that were supposedly also used by the Vedic gods to power their Vimana flying ships.”

A famous one is the Brown Note, which is a theo-retical infrasonic frequency that allegedly causes one to lose control of their bowels due to reso-nance. Even though it is correct that there is the sense of bowel disturbance when one is exposed to low frequencies, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that a “brown note” exists.

This is a controlled experiment in which infra-sound was pumped into a concert hall, UK scien-tists found they could instill strange feelings in the audience at will.To test the impact on an audience of extreme bass notes from an organ pipe, researchers construct-ed a seven-meter-long “infrasonic cannon” which they placed at the back of the Purcell Room, a concert hall in South London. They then invited 750 people to report their feelings after listening to pieces of contemporary music intermittently laced sound from the cannon, played a 17 Hz at levels of 6-8 decibels. (Wyse, 2003)The results showed that odd sensations in the audience increased by an average of 22% when the extreme bass was present. Sarah Angliss (BBC news 2002), an engineer and composer in charge of the project, says “This was an ex-periment done under controlled conditions and it shows infrasound does have an impact, which has implications... in a religious context and some of the unusual experiences people may be hav-ing in certain churches.”

INFRASOUND

INFRASOUND SPECULATIONS

RELATED WORKS

Soundless Music


Sound is made of oscillations generated in the air. By creating disturbance in the air at certain frequencies we are able to create an audible noise. Different frequencies are audible to differ-ent beings. As explained earlier, humans have the ability to hear frequencies at the range of 20Hz – 20000Hz. Once the frequency moves beyond or below that range, hearing becomes obscure.

For the following experiment I will attempt to cre-ate a mechanism to produce frequencies that go below 20hz. The main principle here is that infra-sound has a very low frequency but longer wave-length than normal sound waves, this also means the production of oscillations is very slow. For the purpose of this research and in order to generate infrasound I need to produce a very long sound wave.

THE EXPERIMENT


Through my research I discovered that there are multiple and at some points controverting ways of how to produce infrasound. Previous installations do not share construction methods so I retreated to blogs, which turned out to be a great help.

I found that the simplest way to create infrasound is by creating a circuit electronically. As explained in the HauntForum (2007), this could be done by building a sine wave generator capable of pro-ducing low frequencies, then hooking it up to a subwoofer and run it through a resonant cham-ber.

After further research this was contradicted by the fact that subwoofers have an amplifier stop-per, which would not allow it to reach such low frequencies in order to achieve infrasound. Ei-ther way I chose not to follow this method, not because there were flaws in the process but be-cause buying or even making one would be very expensive.

I decided to proceed with the mechanical con-struction. The course of my assembling trials was a combination of the instructions given by two in-dividual bloggers.

Dave D. on Yahoo Questions (2009) suggests us-ing a Helmholtz resonator. “[…] Have a chamber with a piston on one end, sealed with a Bellof-ram rubber diaphragm. Drive this at 19Hz using a crankshaft. On the other end of the chamber, have a short pipe (2 inches long) connecting to the outside world. Adjust the length and diameter of the pipe plus the volume of the chamber to res-onate at 19Hz. “

In the Haunt Forum (2007) the blogger says “[…] if you wish to mechanically make a generator, have a slow motor, under 1/3 rpm, hooked to a cone which is secured to a frame via fabric for stability and cushioning. The cone will compress and ex-pand the air around it, not unlike a speaker. Then run it through a resonant chamber. The resonant chamber can be a wide plastic drain pipe, but it has to be 1/4 of the wavelength long, to ensure maximum effect.”

HOW TO BUILD AN INFRASOUND

GENERATOR

THE EXPERIMENT


THE EXPERIMENT

Firstly the crankshaft would have to be powered by a motor. The crank would have a rotating joint (a) on it and as this rotates, it would move the piston (b) that is coming off the crank. The pis-ton would then be joined to the rubber diaphragm (c), which would be attached to the cylinder. At this connection there would need to be a pin joint (d) to allow any movement caused by the circular motion of the crank.

As the piston would move by the crank, the dia-phragm would deform by the movement of the piston. This movement would produce sound waves that would resonate into the chamber. The diameter of the chamber should be ¼ of the se-lected wavelength.

On the basis of the above procedures there are a few established facts with remaining issues to be resolved. For instance the motor needs to be strong and moving at a constant rate in order to support the push and pull action of the piston towards the diaphragm. Also whilst building an infrasound generator, either electronically or me-chanically, a resonant chamber is the key to get proper acoustics out of it. However there are no standard dimensions of this equipment published that can be used to construct this device.

Step - by - Step


THE EXPERIMENT

The motor is what generates the frequency. It is about creating the taping sound by pushing the crankshaft onto the diaphragm, which is then am-plified within the chamber (pipe). The motor is run by a 6 Volt battery.

The motor needs to be moving at a fixed rotation speed in order to create a controlled frequency. Simply by counting rotations, 19Hz will be 19 os-cillations per turn. It is essential to be able to con-trol the rotations of the motor so that the frequen-cy is consistent. For this it is useful to use a slow motor, such as a geared motor, which produces slow rotations because it gives out less power while having higher torque. A powerful motor like the ones used for the model electric car gearbox is used for this mechanism.

For this experiment I will connect the motor to an arduino circuit in order to vary its speed. The mo-tor is connected to a variable resistor to change the current that passes through it so that I can change the number of times it oscillates. The less speed that it runs on, the lower the frequency it produces. In the experiment phase I will keep re-ducing the speed to reach frequencies under the range of 20Hz.

The Componentsthe motor


THE EXPERIMENT

The crankshaft is a very straightforward tool, however I could not find one as small as the size that is required for the purpose of my construction so I decided to make one using plywood.

Keeping the principle of the crankshaft and using accessible material, taking under consideration the cost, quality and durability of the outcome, I made an eccentric crank with the motor attached to its center.

The way to fix the crank onto the spindle of the motor was tricky. On a threaded spindle it is easy, however in this case I have a plain spindle and I needed to create a wedged fit. I layered a few pieces of ply in order achieve this and stabilized the crank onto the motor. On the off-center circle of the crank the “arms” reach the pipe.

the crankshaft


THE EXPERIMENT

the chamber

One of the most important parts of this exercise and to achieve maximum effect during the test-ing, I needed to obtain a long pipe. Having a long piece of pipe allows the sound to bounce inside it and contain the amplitude but not frequency. The idea of the chamber is to get resonance and am-plitude but not frequency adjustments. The sound wave gets louder but not longer.

The main difficulty faced here was how to meas-ure the wavelength in order to create the correct size of the resonant chamber. For example, if the desired frequency to be achieved is 19Hz, which means 19 revolutions per second, the wavelength is 19 and the diameter of the chamber is ¼ of that.

¼ x 19 = 4.75 (units?)

The units are unidentifiable, which leaves the measurements as a trial of sizes.

The resonant chamber I used is a drainpipe. Even though the measurements are uncertain, if the chamber is not large enough then the experi-ment will not work. For this reason I have to allow variation of the pipe size. The largest drainpipe that I found available is plastic with a diameter of 110mm, and 2m long. The length of the pipe will be cut down according to the results of the test trials.


THE EXPERIMENT

In order to vary the length of the pipe more ac-curately, I cut an insert that will wedge inside the pipe using a rubber draught seal. This round stopper should have a 50mm hole in the middle into which there will be a short piece of pipe, in order to build up the pressure where the sound is let out. This stopper makes the chamber variable in order to tune it during the trial phases.


THE EXPERIMENT

the diaphragm

This is the connection between the crank, whose movement is inputting the frequency and the pipe, which resonates the sound wave. The type of diaphragm I used is a latex sheet. Initially the sheet is attached to the pipe, using araldite ad-hesive known for bonding plastics. The sheet is stretched over the one side of the pipe and glued on the outside surface; elastic bands are used to hold the latex sheet in place whilst the glue is drying. (For a stronger bond and so that they do not roll off, I also glued the elastic bands onto the latex.)

After all the equipment is put together, I connect-ed the “arm” of the crankshaft on the surface of the latex sheet using a disc made of ply. This way the movement of the crank is distorting the latex sheet in a back and forth manner, which in turn forms the sound waves that will be resonated in-side the pipe.


THE EXPERIMENT

the base

In order for this system to operate correctly, the height of the crank’s arms needs to be level with the middle of the pipe. This is adjusted with the base.

I first took a plank of 3mm ply and130cm long to use at the base that is holding all the compo-nents. On this base I attach the motor, which is braced on a pine button; the crank is wedged on the motor spindle and the height of the arms can be adjustable by the nuts on the main connection screw. On the ply base I attach a 12mm mdf piece of

120cm, on the surface of this mdf I screwed but-tons cut at 45 degrees and on these I placed the pipe. These buttons are cut in a 45-degree an-gle so that the height of the pipe is adjustable depending on the height of the motor and the height of the crankshaft. So both the arms of the crank and the 45-degree buttons are adjustable to make sure that the arm of the crank meets the pipe exactly on its centre.


For the recordings I tried to get hold of a seis-mometer but that was not possible since special-ized equipment of this sort are costly.

I used the iSeismometer, an iphone application that detects vibrations that are emitted on its sur-face. Each acceleration event includes simulta-neous acceleration readings along the three axes of the device.

The output of this digital seismograph is present-ed in a standard digital format. Without having any experience on reading such graphs, I had to rely on Internet sources for the way of operation and attempts to understand the outcome.

TRIALS

THE EXPERIMENT


Even when leveling all the components to achieve a linear sequence, the disc of the crankshaft arm wouldn’t remain straight against the diaphragm.

This was because initially the disc wasn’t glued in order to insure it was running smoothly, for this I added a ring to support the movement of the crank arm. While testing the speed of the motor with a vari-able resistor through the arduino, I noticed an im-provement in smoother movement when I run a slower circuit rather than fast.

THE EXPERIMENT

First Trial


After testing the movement of the crankshaft and noticed it was moving effortlessly I glued the crank disk to the diaphragm to produce the de-sired affect.

When it was going faster I noticed the crank arm would jam on the ring. For this I decided to re-move the ring and let the crank arms move freely now that the disk was glued and stable. With-out the ring however, the disk was putting a lot of pressure on the diaphragm whilst turning and it seemed like it needed a bit more freedom to move.

THE EXPERIMENT

Second Trial


In order to improve this movement I added a pin joint on the crank- diaphragm connection al-lowing more free movement around the crank-diaphragm. Even though the crank was running smoothly, it was not placing enough pressure on the diaphragm and while the pull action seemed correct there was not sufficient push to complete the course. Perhaps a different diameter for the crank would have made this more efficient.

THE EXPERIMENT

Third Trial


Data representations of the sonic vibrations emit-ted from the infrasound generator. Speed of mo-tor is changed with the variable resistor faster and slower rotations.

1 – tube at 2m and before the stopper at the end of it.

2 – tube at 1.7m with no stopper at the end.

RECORDINGS

21


3 – tube at 1.5m with stopper at the end and the ring to support the crank arm. Disk is connected to diaphragm

4 – tube at 1.5m with stopper at the end. No ring and disk is glued to diaphragm.

5 – tube at 1.5m with stopper at the end. No ring, glued disk, and second pin joint on the crank-dia-phragm connection

3

4 5


Initially I tried running the frequency in the tube without the stopper at 2 m, and then 1.7m; after I cut the tube at 1.5m and inserted the sound it produced the more steady frequency at 9-12Hz. Effectively I tried every combination of the com-ponents and still the most consistent outcome was in the first trial run, before the introduction of the second pin.

For this experiment I used a variable resistor, which is essentially a dial, in order to control the frequency and vary the resistant going through the circuit. This caused an increase and decrease of the motor’s speed without having precise con-trol of it. Because of this I am uncertain of the results that were recorded and whether the iSeis-mometer did in fact detect low frequencies.

Having a constant level of force / speed for the crank is more tricky, a solution for this would be to have exact control of the input speed of the motor and hence more accurate infrasound fabrication.

Personally I did not experience any change in my physical state; maybe that is because I was con-scious of the fact that it was happening, or may-be I didn’t run a constant frequency for a large amount of time giving enough time for the vibra-tions to enter the room.

SELF ASSESSMENT

THE EXPERIMENT


In this modern world, infrasound is prevalent eve-rywhere we live, whether man-made or through natural sources. In Gavreau’s own words: “There does not exist complete protection against infra-sound. It is not absorbed by ordinary matter, walls and chambers do not suffice to arrest it”. Accord-ing to Takano (2004-2011) the most apparent remedy to escape from the destruction by infra-sound is to listen to music. Music can eradicate, if not reduce the destructive power of infrasound.

This paper provides an overview of infrasound, its sources, uses and applications. The challenge for this project was to construct a sound genera-tor which produces detectable infrasound. The main problem in the process of assembling this device was the fact that, since the guidelines are not precise, there were a variety of options for the creation of each component. Being at the experi-mental stage, I tried a few of the combinations, still I might have not attained the ‘correct’ ones would have formed a more accurate and stimulat-ing outcome.

Recent work found that hauntings, the feeling that something or someone else unseen is in a room or building, may be explained by the pres-ence of infrasound. Using this experiment as a foundation, I wish to use this infrasound genera-tor in the future to project ‘fear’ into a space. Even though the project was not entirely successful I would like to use the information obtained from it in order to improve it further and install it in a space of unwitting audience. The idea is to cre-ate a narrow unlit space and document the emo-tions of the people that will enter into that space. At the same time I will input infrasound in a dif-ferent room with no specifications. This is to see whether it is possible to experience the ‘fear’ of the person in the unlit corridor, while being in the room where infrasound is being generated. Is it possible to transfer emotions; can one person experience feelings that another person experi-ences in a different environment.

CONCLUSION


BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

ARTICLES

ELECTRONIC SOURCES

• A.Le Pichon, A.Hauchecorne, E. Blanc. (2010). Infrasound Moni-toring for Atmospheric Studies: Springer Science and Business Media B.V.• Gale, Thomson. (2005-2006). World of Physics : Thomson Corpo-ration• Mehta, Neeraj (2009) Textbook of Engineering Physics, Part II: PHI Learning Private Limited• Olson, Harry F. (1967). Music, Physics and Engineering. Dover publications

• Angliss, Sarah (2002). ‘Silent’ concert causes mood swings. BBC NEWS UK. 26 September 2002• Boulware, Jack (2000). Feel the noise. Wired Magazine. October 2000• Christine Kenneally, Christine. (2004) Surviving the Tsunami. Slate Magazine. December 30, 2004. • Cody, John D. (1997). Infrasound. Journal of Borderland Research. September 1, 1997• Sargeant, Jack. (2001). Sonic Weapons. Fortean Times UK, De-cember 2001• Wyse, Pascal (2003) Sonic Boom. The Guardian. 16 May 2003

• Alden, Andrew. Infrasound and Animal Navigation. About.comhttp://geology.about.com/od/infrasonics/a/birdsound.htm

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (2009) Elephant listening project, Cor-nell Universityhttp://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp/elephant/Sections/dictionary/infrasound.html• Dave D. (2009) Engineering, 2009.http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081031090848AAlCD9q

• Takano, Junji (2004-2011), Silent Sound (Infrasound) Can Make You Physically Ill :Pyro-eNERGENhttp://www.pyroenergen.com/articles09/infrasound-effects.htm

• Thomas, Patrice. (2003-2004) Boom car Noisewww.lowertheboom.com

• UnderMan 25.9.2007, Haunt forum: General Prop Discussionhttp://www.hauntforum.com/archive/index.php/t-8153.html

• Vassilatos, Gerry. (1996) The Sonic Weapon of Vladimir Gavreau. Journal of Borderland Research. October 30, 1996.http://journal.borderlands.com/1996/the-sonic-weapon-of-vladimir-gavreau/

• Wikipedia. Infrasound. 26 December 2011http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound

constructing an infrasound generator

Documents

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perception of sound

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