• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
Inside terrifying world’s quietest room where you can hear yourself blink

Home> Science> News

Published 13:01 20 May 2024 GMT+1

Inside terrifying world’s quietest room where you can hear yourself blink

The world's quietest room absorbs 99.99% of sound.

Prudence Wade

Prudence Wade

Featured Image Credit: Transcendental Media/YouTube
Youtube
World News
Science

Advert

Advert

Advert

How well would you survive in a room that's so quiet, the silence is practically deafening?

If you're tempted to try it out, head to a specific chamber at Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Orfield Laboratories describes itself as a 'multi-sensory design research laboratory', and it's home to an 'anechoic chamber' - which is designed to stop reflections of sound waves, meaning it's as quiet as you can get.

It's got the Guinness World Record to prove it, and was named the quietest place on Earth back in 2021.

Advert

alacatr / Getty
alacatr / Getty

According to Guinness: 'In tests conducted on 19 November 2021, the ambient sound level inside the room was measured at -24.9 decibels.'

It's built very specifically to reduce any noise reverberations inside. Guinness notes that it's a masonry and concrete chamber lined with 10.5-cm-thick steel plates, with a smaller steel chamber inside, supported by vibration absorbing springs.

All this, and there's also a layer of heavy insulation - glass-fibre wedges that extend 85cm into the room.

This means the room isn't actually very big, and if you go in you need to stand on a suspended mesh over these wedges.

If you did want to try it out for yourself, it's not cheap - an hour inside the chamber will set you back $400, which is currently reduced from $600.

Or you could just watch a YouTuber give it a go instead. Back in 2021, American creator Ryan Trahan headed to Orfield Laboratories, where he tried two of the rooms there.

The first was built from reflective metal surfaces, meaning it was incredibly echoey and loud, and then he headed into the complete opposite: the anechoic chamber, which is 99.99% absorbent of sound.

Trahan swiftly realized that being in a room entirely devoid of sound is a rather unsettling experience. While we're all used to hearing at least some amount of noise in our day-to-day lives, Trahan found in the anechoic chamber his senses were heightened, and he could even clearly hear the noises of his body.

"The silence is loud, like I feel like I'm screaming right now," he filmed himself saying in the YouTube video, which has clocked up 24m views since it was posted.

According to Trahan, the previous record for time spent in the room was 41 minutes - and he smashed through that by lasting a full hour. Even more strangely, he completely lost track of time in there, and thought he'd been in the room for around 27 minutes when he'd actually reached the full 60.

Choose your content:

15 hours ago
a day ago
  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife
    15 hours ago

    Endangered animal spotted in Los Angeles for first time in over 100 years

    After a century away, the predator is back

    Science
  • Peter Dazeley / Getty
    15 hours ago

    Scientists uncover concerning link between weed smoking and cigarette use in lung cancer risk

    Studies have been conducted into the specific types of smoke

    Science
  • Harun Ozalp / Anadolu via Getty Images
    a day ago

    Elon Musk gives update on SpaceX's Mars mission as critics brand him a 'fraud'

    Elon Musk has had his sights set on colonizing Mars for years

    Science
  • Creative Images Lab/Getty Images
    a day ago

    Exactly how cannabis impacts your body in first 24 hours after use as new study uncovers ‘surprising’ find

    Recreational use of cannabis is legal in 24 states and decriminalized in a further seven states

    Science
  • Woman dies after 'fake' doctor performs surgery whilst watching YouTube tutorial
  • Scientists explain gruesome thing that would happen if you stuck your hand into Earth's 'death machine'
  • First diver to explore inside an iceberg shares terrifying experience of almost not making it back out alive
  • Some of Baba Vanga’s terrifying predictions for 2024 have already come true