Reply With QuoteI forgot to mention, for anyone who cannot be bothered to read the whole of that rather long forum discussion where the sounds were accurately replicated, they had access to recordings used in the original paper!
A recent paper in the SPR Journal found that raps recorded in poltergeist cases all appear to share an apparently unusual acoustic characteristic - a slow 'attack'. The attack is the rate at which sound intensity rises when a sound first starts. So, if you hit a table with your knuckles, the sound intensity will rise very steeply to a peak and then fade away more gradually. In the paper, poltergeist raps rise more slowly in intensity than those produced by hitting objects. The main findings are summarised here.
However, the rapid attack is really only characteristic of a sound source which is relatively close to a recorder and in line of sight. Over longer distances, round corners and when the sound has to traverse a solid, the attack is less rapid, just like the poltergeist raps. This is because with increasing distance the effect of reflected and diffracted sound becomes more prominent, delaying the arrival of sound which has travelled a longer distance. And through solids sounds split into two modes of transmission - transverse and longitidnal - one going much faster than the other which also delays part of the sound.
A group of people over at Rational Skepticism spent a weekend trying to replicate the sounds in the paper normally and found they could reproduce them with astonishing accuracy. This link is half-way through a long forum thread where they start to do their investigation proper. It is long but, in summary, they could reproduce the 'poltergeist raps' by knocking bits of furniture, walls and ceilings without any great difficulty.
I forgot to mention, for anyone who cannot be bothered to read the whole of that rather long forum discussion where the sounds were accurately replicated, they had access to recordings used in the original paper!
Re: The poltergeist (corected speeling) rap
When I read the thread name I expected a rap song. I was quite disappointed
If anyone here is a rapper or Hip-Hopster could you lay some sounds down for me about poltergeists.
______________________________
You need an excuse? Just drink
skbuncks
her cheese slid off her cracker many moons ago
floppit
Sounds are schockin
When ya hear da knockin
In da House
In da haunted house
When get da chills
Y'all run for da hills
In da House
In da haunted house
Oh dear. Matt, are you OK? Do you think you might need a couple of my "special" tablets?Originally Posted by Matt
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright, until you hear them speak.
Did anyone persevere and read that thread I linked to? It is a nice bit of amateur science.
I dont think this is the fun and humour section - so at the risk of sounding like a kill-joy can i ask that threads are not derailed (at least this early on). Some people around here are serial offenders and its getting a bit boring.When I read the thread name I expected a rap song
If anyone here is a rapper or Hip-Hopster could you lay some sounds down for me about poltergeists.
Sorry - no offence meant PM.
Harryprice - have not read the thread but will when i can. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I have to say that the suggestions you made were the obvious ones which occurred to me as i read you outlining the claims they made in the paper. What always astounds me is how parapsychologists never really search hard for plausible alternatives....a case of trying to say that which we hope is true - is true???
Why is cheese?
Not yet (I'm busy with assignments again) but I will do.
.
Nice to see someone like mine (jerome) Campermons Twistors etc efforts. I sumarize our findings here --
http://polterwotsit.wordpress.com/20...ns-jspr-paper/
and then there is more commentary on my blog here
http://polterwotsit.wordpress.com/20...g-experiments/
cj x
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