Archive for August, 2012

INTER-NOISE 2012 in NYC

This coming Sunday through Wednesday (August 19-22, 2012) brings INTER-NOISE 2012 to New York City, the 41st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering.  We are excited to be presenting two of our favorite projects during the conference: our Subcat Music Studios project in Syracuse, and our contributions to an ongoing study of wind turbine noise in western New York State.

 

The theme of this year’s conference (the largest ever held!) is Quieting the World’s Cities, an especially relevant topic for a conference held in the heart of Times Square.  A free Community Noise Public Outreach workshop will be held on Wednesday 8/22 from 8:30 am – 1:45 pm at the Marriott Marquis, including presentations and discussion on the NYC Noise Control Code and noise in general as a community concern.  A top-notch panel of experts and officials has been assembled for this free workshop, and anyone with an interest in community noise (which should include almost anyone living in New York City) will find it enlightening!

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Just how speedy is sound at the Olympics?

Well, it turns out not fast enough!  Years ago, in addition to a traditional starters pistol, Olympic officials started placing loudspeakers behind the athletes so that the sound would reach each athlete at the same time.  It turned out however that the athletes would continue to wait for the sound from the actual starters pistol to arrive.  Even with the loudspeakers, the speed of sound was still slowing down the athletes furthest from the starter pistol.  While we are talking about tiny fractions of a second, with Olympic runners and swimmers, it really makes a difference.  Starting at the Vancouver winter games and this summer in London, they are using a silent pistol that is completely electronic and generates a beep from the loudspeakers only (although it does make a flash).

omega110.jpg  False start: Usain Bolt was caught out in Daegu last summer

[via The Atlantic,  dailymail.co.uk]

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