Sitting in class at 9:00 pm.
It was a long weekend.
I wrote big journal article paper for a crazy class. I felt super productive and happy with myself.
The only downside was that, despite how extra productive I was over the weekend, I hadn't started any of the normal work I have for a normal week.
I fact, at 9:00 pm, I rather had work to do, due in the morning.
Suddenly a very high pitched noise. Everyone in the class was aware of it- if the couldn't physically hear it, they would surely have heard one of my class mates announce "High Pitched Noise" (that happened- and it was totally justified. The noise had a very assertive debut, and kept a strong consistent act up for the next 15 of so minutes)
Well, the prof. was asking how our final projects were going. I half paid attention, because the high pitched noise (HPN) had just mugged me for the other half. Where was it coming from? I briefly considered how I would look if I had the mobile ears of a deer, which perk up at a snapping twig, spinning around like mini radar dishes, triangulating sound. I don't have mobile ears, so instead I slowly turned my head, trying to triangulate the noise.
Woah.
Turning my head totally changed the volume of the noise. But the weird thing was, at some degrees of neck rotation, the noise almost completely disappeared! Like a happy (albeit simple minded) pattern seeking robot I oscillated my head back and forth about the critical angle of noise cancelization, being rewarded with a drop of endorphin everything the HPN vanished. I must have looked like a broken wind up toy or sprinkler head. The classmate next to me- looked at me a bit strangely, I think. He offered me some skittles from the bag on his desk- he must have thought I was blatantly glancing at them, hoping to get some. I declined, (since I got a cavity for the first time as an adult a few weeks ago, i've avoided sugary candy... mostly) and went back to my robotic actuating. What was causing the HPN! How was the sound vanishing. With my basic understanding of wave physics, I figured some sort of destructive interference was happening. How could a single wave destruct itself? I mused.
What if the signal reached my left ear at a max amplitude while at the same time it reached my right ear at a min amplitude and my brain cheated and combined the signal to save on data carrying?
That would be cool
My realistic bit of my brain vetoed the idea- it said "Hey stupid. I'm guessing its not some complex biological mechanism. Its probably just two point sources of sound, which cancel at some angles."
"Ha!" responded the other bit of my brain "What the chance there are two point sources of HPN?"
"Um- how about the speakers mounted on the left and right side of the room, with you about in the middle?"
"Or" said a new voice, cutting in, probably my subconsciousness, "your imagining the whole thing because your're mentally shot... just my two cents", taking a swig of V-8.
"ITS TOTALLY REAL" blustered the optimistic bit of my brain
I proved it by waggling my head back and forth for several more minutes until the noise shut off.
"Was it ever on?" poked my subconscious.
"Yes. Your're just jealous you don't get to drive, unless there's an emergency" retorted my motor functions, which had been having a great time pretending my neck was a precision servo motor for the last 10 minutes.
