Silence is golden – until you find yourself in the quietest room in the world.
In 2015, Microsoft made it what it is now Guinness Book of World Records As the quietest place on the planet.
In what is known as an anechoic chamber at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, “ultra-sensitive tests” conducted in 2015 gave an average background noise reading of -20.35 dBA (decibel A-weighted – a measure of sound pressure level).
There are very few people who can withstand being in a room for long — Maximum one hour.
After a few minutes, you will already begin to hear your heartbeat. A few minutes after that, and you can hear your own bones grinding and bleeding.
The point of an anechoic chamber is not that you won’t hear anything, but that it will block out all other outside noises and allow you to hear the endless sounds of your own body.
Only in death is the body completely silent.
The environments we think of as ultra-quiet are usually louder than the human hearing range, which is around 0 decibels.
A library reading room, for example, can be up to about 40 decibels.
With no sound coming from the outside world, the complete and utter silence will gradually turn into an unbearable hum in your ears.
This will likely lead to you losing your balance due to the lack of echo in the room, which lowers your spatial awareness.
“When you turn your head, you can even hear that motion. You can hear yourself breathing and it makes some rattling noises.” Hundraj Gopal, lead designer of Room at Microsoft, last state,
The word anechoic means “without echo.” It took two years to design the space.
Composed of six layers of concrete and steel, it stands little apart from the surrounding building. An array of vibration-damping springs is located below. Inside, fiberglass wedges are installed on the floor, ceiling, and walls to break up sound waves before they have a chance to bounce back into the room.
Meanwhile, another anechoic chamber is hoping to earn the new title of quietest room in the world.
Located at Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis, Steven J. According to Orfield, the room yielded “a valid measurement” of “-24.9 dBA”. Earlier this record was made.
Orfield told The New York Times that he has filed an application to reclaim his chamber’s title and is currently awaiting a response from Guinness World Records.
A representative for Guinness confirmed receipt of the latest submission to Orfield’s outlet, adding that Guinness’ record-management team is “in the process of assessing both their evidence and their testing criteria.”