Question: how come when you talk into a fan your voice sounds weird?
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I tested this out on the weekend and everyone in the house had a go at this. I’ve heard my voice in radio interviews and talking into a fan beats that for sounding weird. My voice sounded almost like a robot.
Theres two things happening from what I observed. Sound is a series of vibrations that travel through air as sound waves that can be heard by a person’s or animal’s ear.
Here is a video with a little more information on sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLeGJclQiI
So when talking to a fan that is moving, the soundwaves leaving your mouth can do two things. It can hit a blade and be reflected back at you making your voice sound a little louder or it can travel in between the gaps of the blade and travel onwards making your voice sound normal.
Now, because the fan is spinning really fast we end up hearing both the loud and quiet voice at nearly the same time and we end up hearing a strange robotic like voice.
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thanks mags 🙂
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I makes you sound like a Dalek off Dr Who lol
nicolaa
watto
When you speak, your vocal chords vibrate. You can feel this if you put your hand against the front of your throat while you speak.
This vibration makes the air in your throat and mouth vibrate and a little sound wave is created. The sound wave moves through the air and when you hear someone speak, this is the sound wave hitting your ear drum and triggering nerve impulses to your brain.
But the sound wave that comes out of your mouth when you speak is sensitive to movements in the air. Just like when you can’t hear someone as well outside when it’s really windy, your voice gets blown around and distorted when the wind from the fan blows at the sound waves. Just promise you won’t get your tongue stuck in the fan while you’re testing that out, okay? 🙂
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Not sure I’ve ever done this. What does it sound like? All over the place, or high pitched?
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I will so HAVE to try this on the weekend before answering. Sounds like an excellent excuse, I mean, reason to play with a fan.
When I mean play, I mean investigate science. Yeah. That.
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As the fan spins, the blade reflects sound, then the gap does not reflect any sound, then the next blade reflects sound, then the next gap does not reflect any sound, and so on. The voice sounds weird because half of the sound has been reflected or blocked while the other half of the sound isn’t.
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