I remember reading about how cave paintings are done in such a way as to produce a form of moving picture when illuminated by fire. How about a show on that?
I've never heard of that, but I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to carve slits in a hollow log or a gourd, suspend it on a string above a fire and spin it quickly to achieve that kind of effect
@@francois-xavierdessureault8039 No, thy were painted in such a way that as the fire flickered, different colors would come into prominence and create a sort of animation. Sorry I can't remember where/when I saw it.
Several years ago I took a summer course on ancient Greek theatre that involved traveling around Greece and visiting various theatres and archeological sites, and I will never forget what it was like being in the theatron at Epidaurus while my professor stood in the orchestra and performed a section of the Iliad in ancient Greek. It was utterly eerie and the closest thing I've ever experienced to time travel (and also the site is chock full of very friendly cats, 10/10). Thanks for the fascinating video!
Hi Bobbie, that sounds like a great experience. I am used to travelling around with fam all over Greece to explore our history. Can I ask the name of that course? Would be great to travel with a bigger group including archaeologists.
@@helenastat3510 Hi Helen! Alas I was in undergrad at the time and it was a course I took through my university in Canada, which I don't think is even offered there anymore. It was all students and professors from the school who traveled abroad for a month.
I have played my violin in several Greek amphitheatres and modern performance venues really can't compare. I enjoyed Epidarus, but my absolute favourite amphitheatre is at Ephesus. I don't really have words for the experience of playing there. What I can say is that I spent over 5 hours playing. Someday I hope to do a live recording there. It's such a remarkable space.
@@MaryAnnNytowl I trained classically, but these days I am predominantly a fiddler. I play most Canadian styles, though I tend to favour Cape Breton fiddling. When I went to Ephesus, I didn't play anything in particular, I just improvised. It was remarkable. If you want to listen to an amazing album, check out Oliver Schroer's Camino. It's a collection of improvised music he recorded in various small chapels and churches along the Camino de Santiago. You can hear the shape of the space he's playing in. Absolutely incredible. There is something about those kinds of spaces that pick up the music and lift it into something truly special.
We tend to forget that just because ancient peoples were not as technologically advanced as we are now, they were still just as smart. Trial and error are powerful tools.
Honestly, intelligence was far more necessary for the survival of our ancestors than for ourselves. We could very well be getting less intelligent at this point.
Jarrett Benning I have thought the same thing myself. Nowadays most workers are doing the same task over and over, when I worked in retail it was mind numbing. Even many educated people specialize in only one field. Meanwhile hunter gatherers had to understand every part of their environment and become skilled at a wide variety of jobs.
Its still mind boggling to me that most of the architecture that was created in South America was done without the use of wheels. They hadn't been invented yet nor did they get imported until much later.
blksmagma Actually, they apparently had little toys with wheels, it's just not practical to *use* wheels to transport much of anything on winding narrow trails up mountains through rainforests.
We have lost about 10cc of brain mass since the dawn of civilization, from 60cc to 50cc according to theories based on the brain cavity size in ancestral humans. (Saw in documentary, need citation)
That piramid in Chichenitza Is the Temple of Kukulcán. El castillo Is the name given by Spaniard conquistadors. But everyone there knows it by the former (and cooler) one.
@@NatCo-Supremacist @XORRE Hahaha, no. "El Castillo Pyramid" is, literally, "The Castle Pyramid". It not only sounds silly and grammatically weird, it also paints a very ridiculous mental image.
That's one of mankind's biggest strengths: As long as we had enough experience with it, we don't need to understand HOW something works to harness and use it. how acoustics or farming worked on a scientific level was not neccessary to know, we had MILLENNIA to find out how to build and farm and THEN we had centuries to find out WHY we did it that way
This is so damn fascinating for us music producers / sound engineers. In those structures, we see (and hear lol) things, like phasing, pitching, reverb etc, that we do in our studio with computers and other gear, happening physically in the real world!
@@BRUXXUS haha yeah, there might be out there. But i'm pretty sure you can get pretty close with just normal reverbs, delays and filters! Of course if you somehow hear some recording of these places
This comment ☝ I agree that learning stuff like this is a big help, definitely want to get into sound engineering someday. Also I find it fun to see how various speakers sound in different rooms, really helps in both my understanding and experience!
I sang at Epidaurus, very cool! A visiting professor clapped around the stage while we sat far up the stands, the closer his hands got to the centre of the stage, the louder it seemed. When his hands were just over the centre of the stage, it was like someone clapping in your ear! I also sang inside the beehive tombs of Mycenae, where the sound was amplified incredibly! A funeral held inside one must have been an experience!
Quick comment about the brains filling in the missing sound. There is an incredible book called “your brain on music” where in one of the chapters they discuss experimental evidence showing that our brain does fill in missing notes while listening to music. ❤️
This phenomenon has been used by organ builders since the late 18th or early 19th centuries. If you don't have room (or funding) to build a 32' or 64' stop, you use shorter pipes that sound the harmonics that would be produced by longer pipes. Your brain just fills in the missing fundamental. They're called "resultant stops." Psychoacoustics is a fascinating field.
Also jazz musicians leave out the 5th of a chord since the brain fills that in. It is the harmonic series: fundamental, octave, fifth, (2nd) octave, third, etc.... Strangely enough, the overtone series stretches out to become the blues scale.
@@Tazy50 temples and their pillars are literally there to see and hear. it is not a claim but some prejudiced people like to bring claims by some nutjob to deny the existence of real things. Gtugdjk says "yes ancient Greeks had space travel according Greek mythology " . So STFU.
I love the idea that people through out ages have always liked to build and make cool or interesting stuff. The same joy I and most kids around the world archived from discovering how fun it is to yell in tunnels, human history have been filled with but with their realities equivalents.
In India, Golconda Fort, Gol Gumbaz, several monuments built by Mughals (eg Akbar's Tomb) have been acoustically designed If you speak in one part of the structure, a person standing several hundred feet away in designated locations can hear him speak
Not Only That, There Were Amazing Indian Temples That Consists Of Musical Pillars Such As: 1) Vijaya Vithala temple of 15th century in Hampi, Karnataka. 2) Madurai Meenakshi temple in 16th century, Tamil Nadu. 3) Suchindram Thanumalayan temple in 17th century, Tamil Nadu. ...That Were Capable Of Producing Wonderful Musical Notes Through Tapping Or Blowing Action Available For Everyone! It's Literally Incredible How Our Ancestors Are Capable Of Such Sophisticated Understanding Of Engineering Despite The Lack Of Assistance Of Modern Technology, But Only Through The Ingenuity Of Their Own Back In Their Time!
@@maxplaysgamez-sharesgaming1756 Thnx bhai. I had no idea. Out of the three u mentioned, I have visited Meenakshi Temple only. But I don't remember seeing any musical pillars. Maybe bcoz I didn't explore the entire temple complex (its fricking huge)
There are temples having musical pillars and tombs having echo chambers that amplify the slightest of whispers here in India. May be a similar topic of interest for you guys.
I would like to see some episodes on old architecture ways that help to cool the building without the use of an air conditioner. Such as layout designs for best airflow and materials used that allow for buildings to be cooler inside as one would get with stone constructions
I believe they did one of those! I will check my playlists, and see if I can locate it. If I do, I'll come back and let you know the title so you can search for it. 🙂
While it’s unlikely the ancient folks who designed and built these sites knew the underlying physics at play to the same level we do, there’s little doubt in my mind that the acoustics were intentional. I would posit that many of the phenomena were accidentally discovered at first, and then once the geometries involved in creating them were understood, the civilizations that made them reproduced them at a larger scale. Bear in mind that most ancient ruins that have survived the eons were important, culturally significant structures and were built to higher standards, with more detail, better materials, and superior craftsmen than typical structures. The stone monuments survive, but the average family’s wooden house does not. It’s logical for these central structures to have intentional, special acoustical properties just as we do with important cultural venues today. Tl;dr: It’s difficult to right off special acoustical phenomena popping up at important ancient cultural sites and monuments across civilizations and time repeatedly as being accidental.
I agree. They may have simply experienced the effects in natural caves and so on, and they might never have had quite the kind of technical terms we have now. But they would have known the basic "this shape of a wall makes the voice echo" quite well. And, because these were all "public spaces" in a sense - spaces intended for important social/emotional/religious happenings - they would indeed have had the best minds, the best hands, the best materials available. I would add to this - every one of these examples were designed to mystify, to enhance emotional responses AND to inspire a deep sense of awe and wonder. We already know that stone monuments of all sorts were basically always intended to inspire the viewers. Whether that was inspiring awe and respect for a king, or awe and fear of a deity, I think it's plain that a theater, a temple, a henge ALL share in common the wish to evoke strong feelings in their audiences. And so some portion of these designs is literally (sorry for the word play) for effect: precisely designed to get precise effects on the sounds made. Think about it: the builders and the priests were almost certainly better educated than the average layman in attendance at a temple. The layman would have had NO idea about the secret air ducts or special geometries or anything else. How much more powerful would a given event be if you experience sounds like no others you hear in your everyday life? Sounds you CAN'T explain for yourself? If the whole temple plaza is "singing" - could you not believe that the gods themselves are communicating with you? If you knew none of our modern day physics and science, and you heard that, would YOU believe it was just a dude with a conch shell in the basement? Of course not! (To be honest I probably wouldn't believe it even knowing some basic science!) But these are REALLY great examples of some of the best minds of their respective times. Us humans are pretty nifty from time to time. And we sound good too!
How could they not understand the physics. Sorry but you don’t start carving and laying stone unless you have a design and a plan. No way they threw a bunch of stone together then sat around tweaking the stones to achieve an effect. It makes no sense. Archimedes In Sicily knew more physics than 99% of American high school students.
We have a very beautiful and well preserved Roman theater in my town. The singers that perform there indeed sound excellent. I dare say, they sound better than in an actual modern stage. Romans sure knew how to build them. Our modern theaters are already falling apart, even the new ones, but this single 2000 year old theater is still standing. Really makes you think.
So, in the book "The Long Earth", there's a scene with two university students who have come out to some remote standing stones to test the acoustic of the stones themselves, but I didn't know that was an actual branch of archeology till now
Music was important to earlier people in history, that's why drums and wood (wind) pipes were always used in ceremonies...This is very interesting although I knew this cause I love historical sites and how people built with rocks...✌😷👋
Hypogeum is worth a trip to Malta all by itself. Prepare for a mind blowing assortment of ancient structures, some older than the pyramids or Stonehenge, in a country the size of the city of Detroit.
I was so surprised to hear him mentioning Malta, my home. I myself have never even been to the hypogeum as they only allow a limited number of people to access per year, so you have to plan your visit early
Been on Epidaurus and on other ancient greek theaters and as a greek I have to say that I am very proud of these structures and how they have been so well preserved during the centuries! Plus the acoustic is amazing!
So these ancient structures created by ancient peoples with astounding precision in their stonework produce unusual acoustics, in one case producing a sound very similar to the call of a bird sacred to the builders and we wanna say we can't be sure if the acoustics were intentional or a happy accident? I know the scientific process is about having an idea about a thing and then doing every test imaginable to prove the idea wrong or right, with many scientists being more excited about being proven wrong over being proven right, but it seems a little silly to me to think that these builders built these amazing structures and just accidentally produced these unique acoustical phenomena. Especially when some of these sites are conducted in the name of religious worship. Nothing motivates a people like faith and the ancient people were a lot more sophisticated than modern times want to give them credit for.
These designs weren't an accident just as the universe did not evolve by accident therefore it must have been created by a creator just like these designs, created by men.
You can not prove an idea (read: theory) right. But I am with you on this. These ancient people had the same physical and mental capacity as us. They didn't have electricity, no internet, no cranes, but they sure had a lot of knowledge and this was their entertainment. These theaters and places of worship were their youtube/TVs/cinemas. Of course they put all their brain power into building them to get the best experience. Just like we put all our brain power into getting the best sound quality from tiny headphones and the most fluid animations on the most brilliant, colorful displays in the palm of our hands and what not. Joe Scott recently made a video where he analyzed how long our human traces would last. Guess what: After just about 10k years, you'd barely recognize that we even existed. So I think it's plausible a LOT of the lifestyle and knowledge and even artifacts from ancient times are completely missing, so we assume all they had were those stone structures that we can see today. There was way more. Here's the video: czcams.com/video/xtJ49gXWwA0/video.html
Bruh I know right!! The sound on the structure mimicks the sound of the bird Quetzal, and their deity, Quetzalcoatl is named after it!! It's like they think we're dumb and ancient people couldn't possibly be smart enough to create something so intricate. It pisses me off lmao
Right. It is beyond comprehension to undermine these ancient civilizations intelligence and awe-inspiring structures just because we no longer possess the same knowledge they once had. Instead of trying to deny their intelligence, we need to aspire in achieving our own intelligence to the same level.
It’s funny because as a musician I also really loved this. I always knew there were two kinds of people watching this channel... actual scientists/engineers and stoners 😂
I had the pleasure of clapping at Chichen Itza in 2012. Also, next to the temple is a Pok-Ta-Pok court, where they played a Mayan sport that requires bouncing a ball off of the player's hip through a hoop; apparently, the ball bounce echoes on the temple and sounds even more like a bird than a clap does.
I saw a "football' field like this in the Anthropology museum of Mexico city ( they even had a rubber ball in the exhibit) but the game was very brutal and many people were killed.
I remember taking the tour at Hoover Dam and freaking out the tour when I would hum and set up a standing wave in the tunnel. I small hum at the right frequency made a very loud noise. The Hoover gods were very kind that day... :-)
I've been watching the SciShow for about a year and I'm here just to say how much I appreciate Hank's effort when pronouncing Chichén Itzá, El Castillo, Quetzal, Chavín de Huántar, Lanzón. Nicely done for a non-native Spanish speaker, man! 🙌🏽
I remember when I visited the theater of Epidaurus, the guide threw a coin on the stage while I was way up high and I could hear that sound very clearly.
We JUST talked about the theatre of Epidaurus in my music history class last week! Awesome to see a video like this from scishow, especially as someone who is studying music education in undergrad, and misses taking science classes so watches scishow all the time :)
I get so excited when I see a new discovery in the area of frequency and sound. With how prevalent it's been in worship and such, I wonder if we might rediscover a facet to sound we've lost since the stone age.
@@craigb8228 I don’t want to say I believe one way or the other but I’m very hopeful that it’s true and it’ll be rediscovered some time in the near future.
I visited Epidaurus many years ago and remember that while standing in the uppermost bleachers you could easily hear the sound of footsteps on the gravel in the performance area.
I took a class that briefly touched on stuff like this and I LOVED it so THANK YOU for making this video ♥ I want to share it with everyone even though I know they're not as nerdy as I am about music and sound 😂
There’s plenty of reason to doubt that the greeks knew about the physics and science involved with the theatre on a technical level, but I would say that the observation of two similar sounds cancelling each other out or amplifying one another based on their distance from one another is something anyone with the need to look into that, such as an acoustics architect, could reasonably find with some simple experiments. If this is the case, then said archetect would have lined the steps at the distance he found best for reducing background noise. This would be my hypothesis, which obviously needs evidence to support it (which is probably non-existent).
I was thinking either that, or more often, ancient architects would mimic eachothers work, so if one just happened to build a theater that amplified the right sounds, others would be more likely to copy it, and over time they'd improve.
A few years back, I was privileged to watch a performance of Carmen in the large Roman Amphitheatre, in Verona. The whole event was delivered acoustically, without the use of electronic amplification. The sound quality was excellent.
The ball court at Chichen Itza has a really cool acoustic element. There are throne seats on either end of the court. If you talk to the back wall of these areas, your voice will heard clearly on the other end. I have experienced this myself when I visited.
super dumb that this video didn't include sound examples for any of these save for a two second example for the chichen itza. There REALLY should be examples for stuff like this.
as an audio engineer, sound designer, singer and voice over artist, a few things: 1) resonance is everything. a couple mentions isnt enough. 2) talking about specific individual frequencies without also referring to the harmonic series is quite sophomoric. Frequencies that invoke brain activity in language vs emotion is ... just not a thing. Language is all the frequencies, emotion is all the frequencies. Sine waves (waves of singular frequencies and no harmonics) don't occur in nature, so our brains didn't evolve to respond to them specifically. 3) wind produces ALL frequencies, just at different amplitudes (see pink noise vs white noise). whispering is almost exclusively 1.5 kHz and higher. 4) All human voices, male and female, of all voice types produce fundamental frequencies below 500 Hz. The harmonic series accounts for vowel intelligibility. consonants are almost exclusively 4kHz and higher.
My good friend, who has a lovely tenor speaking voice, has performed at Epidarus. He said the experience was incredible! Every utterance carried to the very back row.
So ancient people definitely had more knowledge of sound and architecture than we currently give them credit for. could also be evidence for ancient people being in more connection with each other than previously thought where they share or traded knowledge
Regarding Epidaurus: Wouldn't the sound waves mainly be bouncing off people in a packed theatre? The way Hank talks about how sound is reflected by the steps makes it sound like the theatre was constructed to be used without an audience.
It really seems like the ancients from the deep past are trying to communicate with the future simply via the mathematical patterns expressed via their architecture; astronomical alignments that model (among other things) procession and size of the earth, acoustics, golden ratios, cryptic messages or "we exist," fibbanacci sequences and more all stretching back as far as ten thousand years ago or more. It's really fascinating and continuously throwing a wrench in our understanding of the human story. To me it's most exciting frontier of discovery on our planet.
the throne hall at Persepolis apparently also had unique acoustic and light amplifying design considerations. Highly polished and densely packed colonnade and a very high ceiling allowed for the king to speak to a large audience without having to raise his voice.
We have a similar thing to Chichen Itza in the town I live in. We call it the clap and squeak. Stand in the middle on this circle, clap, and it comes back as a squeak sound. You can only hear it if you stand directly in the middle, otherwise it just sounds like a clap.
Sci Show: discusses diffraction. Also Sci Show: shows a clip of water droplets forming waves which does not show diffraction. Love your content, though, guys :)
Also they keep sating diffraction and then showing examples of reflection. Wikipedia says: "Diffraction refers to various phenomena that occur when a wave encounters an obstacle or opening. It is defined as the bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. " - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction That is decidedly not what they talked about for the theatre and pyramid segments.
The original chamber for the US House of Representatives was like the stone hinge example-is, it still exists and you can take a tour to see it. It’s shaped to amplify the voices at regular speaking volume so that you can hear someone in the opposite corner as crystal clearly as if they were right up in your face. It’s eerie and effective.
Seriously.... If you've never heard/watched Pink Floyd's Live from Pompeii, you're really missing out on a great audio experience, even though it was recorded in the 70's, the sound is phenomenal.
re. the idea that there is something in the range that male-chanting voices can reach might cause a 'spiritual' response in us: this might possibly be true, but what is definitely true is that it is always important to avoid equating correlation with cause and effect. In this case, using adults in an area accessible to UCLA in 2008 would almost necessarily mean using research participants who grew up with TV hosts, news anchors, transit announcers, radio DJs, political speakers etc. etc., etc., even CZcams narrators, who were predominantly male (or even exclusively male depending on the age of the adults). That is, the research participants grew-up in a context being taught that male is the voice of authority, of reason, of learning, and of that which is important in the world. Often too, we are taught that women's voice have nothing important to say, that they are 'too high' and 'too squeaky' or some other 'insert-insult-here too', and that these female voices can be ignored (e.g. how often in a meeting is a woman's comment dismissed when the man is praised for *repeating the same comment* moments later?). This conditioning almost necessarily would have an impact on how these research-participant listeners responded to the frequencies of sound that they were exposed to during the research. As it happens, depending on when the structures were built, the people from those times likely also grew-up being conditioned to believe that the male voice is the voice of reason, authority, and in fact in many cases of 'normal human' or even just 'human' as women were not considered to even be people but were rather chattel in those days. These people, however, lacked the mass media that make the conditioning so wide-spread in our times. So, does it really put people in a spiritual mood or are we just responding to a noise that we have been conditioned to respond to as being 'worth listening too'? And, in consequence are these taught worth-listening-to voices those that also provoke in us an emotional reaction? Correlation is different than cause and effect and potential intervening variables are always important.
there are so many things that only come across as “unintuitively” as they do simply because 1st-world citizens tend to have way more assumptions than there is evidence to justify... so much of our education system, our media, our social norms are just... “you absolutely must take *this* and *this* for granted at all times for objective empirical utilitarian reasons, but never _this”_ ...these initial default assumptions were just decided upon long ago in a different context to be the best of all possible assumptions to unite a population around... which may no longer be true in more recent contexts.... but if you try to make a case for this? too late! the norms have already been established, and you are disobeying them, and are thus a deviant/criminal regardless of any opposition, because opposition is ipso facto just a performative deception
The Mary Hill Stone Henge in Mary Hill, Washington is definitely worth visiting. Its a short stop but pretty cool. While you are there, also check out the Mary Hill Art Museum just down the road from it.
How do you design something with sound in mind? Like if I wanted to clap and hear something specific back how would I go about designing that? Make a video on some of those hypothesis especially in ancient times?
Based off the comments in this video so far I’d say my hypothesis was correct. Most people who watch this channel are either actual students/scientists/engineers etc or stoners trying to get their mind blown 🤯
‼️❓ I never even heard of acoustic archeology! That is so incredibly cool and fascinating! It's so _very_ interesting to think they may have already understood how acoustics work! Thank you very much for this one, especially, and for all you do, Hank, et al!
In the south east of France, in a town named Orange we have an antique theater, the best preserved in the world. We have an opera festival each summer (except this year...). I went once, only once, as the price tickets are crazy, I make myself a nice birthday present. No regret !!! It was wonderful. 😸 History of the theater: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Theatre_of_Orange History of the Choregies : en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chor%C3%A9gies_d%27Orange
many temples in India have very unique acoustic properties to their architecture, like temple with musical pillars or the hall where one can hear slightest whispers of people on the ground floor while standing on top floor. it can have a video of it's own
The range of human hearing ranges from 20hz to 20,000hz. It is most sensitive in the range of 2000-5000hz of which 500hz is a common multiple. As you say in the video, most noise is below 500hz which would make it an ideal roll off point for unwanted frequencies. As the 3 octaves above that cutoff contain the frequencies we are most sensitive to.
I remember going to chitchen izta (Ik I just butchered that spelling), hearing that noise again just sent shivers down my spine. So cool but so strange. It’s unreal.
Ancient sites resonate at 70 - 140 Hz for the same reason we sing hymns and the Zen do Ho drones; same reason there are bells, drums, and gongs; sound resonance, standing waves, and specific frequencies all produce somatic effects that elevate us, center and calm us, and let us find more of our humanity.
i experienced the chichen itza effect many times when walking by a long wall made out of trapeziodal sheet metal, every step or clap sounds like that i used to walk by a company that was built with it
It's a pity the Sydney Opera House went waaay over budget causing the builders to scrap the original design for the interior, which computer models have suggested was a work of acoustic genius.
Oh cool. That Stonehenge park isn’t too far from where I live. Totally surprised me when we drove by it once lol. I’m going to check that out next time we go to WA.
Another example of a waveguide is a section at Grand Central where you can stand in the corner and speak and a person at the opposite corner will be able to hear you quite clearly. I remember trying this out as a kid and being amazed. Not an ancient structure but still pretty cool.
wavelength = speed of sound / frequency so a low ish frequency like 125Hz (and speed of sound in air at 20 degrees of about 340 m/s); the wavelength is about 2.7 meters. So that’s one of the reasons why a garden wall won’t stop bass noise. and why egg boxes stuck to your garage door won’t make your neighbor any happier about your drum lessons. For high frequencies the wavelength is much smaller. but this is a handy simple formula to work out some of the frequency specific dimensions mentioned in the vid :)
I remember reading about how cave paintings are done in such a way as to produce a form of moving picture when illuminated by fire. How about a show on that?
That would be fascinating.
I’ve never heard of that. Sounds good.
Painting with light? You're looking at it.
I've never heard of that, but I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to carve slits in a hollow log or a gourd, suspend it on a string above a fire and spin it quickly to achieve that kind of effect
@@francois-xavierdessureault8039 No, thy were painted in such a way that as the fire flickered, different colors would come into prominence and create a sort of animation. Sorry I can't remember where/when I saw it.
Several years ago I took a summer course on ancient Greek theatre that involved traveling around Greece and visiting various theatres and archeological sites, and I will never forget what it was like being in the theatron at Epidaurus while my professor stood in the orchestra and performed a section of the Iliad in ancient Greek. It was utterly eerie and the closest thing I've ever experienced to time travel (and also the site is chock full of very friendly cats, 10/10). Thanks for the fascinating video!
Hi Bobbie, that sounds like a great experience. I am used to travelling around with fam all over Greece to explore our history. Can I ask the name of that course? Would be great to travel with a bigger group including archaeologists.
@@helenastat3510 Hi Helen! Alas I was in undergrad at the time and it was a course I took through my university in Canada, which I don't think is even offered there anymore. It was all students and professors from the school who traveled abroad for a month.
@@bobbie7618thanks Bobbie, yeah, I figured that. Would be great if something like this existed for non undergrads. Take care.
Helen Thomas Check out Road Scholar, they have some fantastic educational tours and trips all over the world!
When I was in Epidaurus about 15 years ago, there happened to be an opera singer in a group of tourists who sang a short piece. It was magical.
I’d be interested in seeing more episodes about acoustics and architecture.
yes and send Miranda to test them
Ditto
That's engineering, not architecture
With actual examples of the sounds, if possible
This guy is on point
I have played my violin in several Greek amphitheatres and modern performance venues really can't compare. I enjoyed Epidarus, but my absolute favourite amphitheatre is at Ephesus. I don't really have words for the experience of playing there. What I can say is that I spent over 5 hours playing. Someday I hope to do a live recording there. It's such a remarkable space.
I hope you get that opportunity.
What kind of music do you play, if you don't mind my curiosity? I really enjoy classical music on stringed instruments of all kinds, personally. 😊
@@MaryAnnNytowl I trained classically, but these days I am predominantly a fiddler. I play most Canadian styles, though I tend to favour Cape Breton fiddling.
When I went to Ephesus, I didn't play anything in particular, I just improvised. It was remarkable. If you want to listen to an amazing album, check out Oliver Schroer's Camino. It's a collection of improvised music he recorded in various small chapels and churches along the Camino de Santiago. You can hear the shape of the space he's playing in. Absolutely incredible.
There is something about those kinds of spaces that pick up the music and lift it into something truly special.
We tend to forget that just because ancient peoples were not as technologically advanced as we are now, they were still just as smart. Trial and error are powerful tools.
Honestly, intelligence was far more necessary for the survival of our ancestors than for ourselves. We could very well be getting less intelligent at this point.
Jarrett Benning I have thought the same thing myself. Nowadays most workers are doing the same task over and over, when I worked in retail it was mind numbing. Even many educated people specialize in only one field. Meanwhile hunter gatherers had to understand every part of their environment and become skilled at a wide variety of jobs.
Its still mind boggling to me that most of the architecture that was created in South America was done without the use of wheels. They hadn't been invented yet nor did they get imported until much later.
blksmagma Actually, they apparently had little toys with wheels, it's just not practical to *use* wheels to transport much of anything on winding narrow trails up mountains through rainforests.
We have lost about 10cc of brain mass since the dawn of civilization, from 60cc to 50cc according to theories based on the brain cavity size in ancestral humans. (Saw in documentary, need citation)
That piramid in Chichenitza Is the Temple of Kukulcán. El castillo Is the name given by Spaniard conquistadors. But everyone there knows it by the former (and cooler) one.
+
Latter name is cooler
@@NatCo-Supremacist @XORRE Hahaha, no. "El Castillo Pyramid" is, literally, "The Castle Pyramid". It not only sounds silly and grammatically weird, it also paints a very ridiculous mental image.
@@NatCo-Supremacist It sounds horrible 😭
@@landy9345 No.
That's one of mankind's biggest strengths: As long as we had enough experience with it, we don't need to understand HOW something works to harness and use it. how acoustics or farming worked on a scientific level was not neccessary to know, we had MILLENNIA to find out how to build and farm and THEN we had centuries to find out WHY we did it that way
biggest strength and biggest weakness as it also leads us into trouble quite often.
That’s how fermentation came about - cheese, beer, wine, etc - all without knowing what was going on on the microbial scale.
@@JustinMoralesTheComposer and somebody brave enough to eat/drink them
This is so damn fascinating for us music producers / sound engineers. In those structures, we see (and hear lol) things, like phasing, pitching, reverb etc, that we do in our studio with computers and other gear, happening physically in the real world!
I was thinking, "I wonder if there's any IR, impulse response files floating around of these places?"
Would be really cool to use in some music !
@@BRUXXUS haha yeah, there might be out there. But i'm pretty sure you can get pretty close with just normal reverbs, delays and filters! Of course if you somehow hear some recording of these places
This comment ☝
I agree that learning stuff like this is a big help, definitely want to get into sound engineering someday.
Also I find it fun to see how various speakers sound in different rooms, really helps in both my understanding and experience!
I sang at Epidaurus, very cool! A visiting professor clapped around the stage while we sat far up the stands, the closer his hands got to the centre of the stage, the louder it seemed. When his hands were just over the centre of the stage, it was like someone clapping in your ear!
I also sang inside the beehive tombs of Mycenae, where the sound was amplified incredibly! A funeral held inside one must have been an experience!
Quick comment about the brains filling in the missing sound.
There is an incredible book called “your brain on music” where in one of the chapters they discuss experimental evidence showing that our brain does fill in missing notes while listening to music. ❤️
This phenomenon has been used by organ builders since the late 18th or early 19th centuries. If you don't have room (or funding) to build a 32' or 64' stop, you use shorter pipes that sound the harmonics that would be produced by longer pipes. Your brain just fills in the missing fundamental. They're called "resultant stops."
Psychoacoustics is a fascinating field.
Also jazz musicians leave out the 5th of a chord since the brain fills that in. It is the harmonic series: fundamental, octave, fifth, (2nd) octave, third, etc.... Strangely enough, the overtone series stretches out to become the blues scale.
In orchestra, when wind instruments have long runs of 16th notes, a note here or there left out to catch a breath is definitely filled in. It’s wild.
I've found two books with that title, being the authors Laura Saunders and Daniel Levitin. Which one would be?
That is very interesting. Thank you! I will look up the book, and appreciate you sharing the reference with us. :D
There are Musical pillars in Indian temples that are acoustically designed.
inb4 some guy named Ranjinandu Pragnanandamiswamigamalundanathan says "yes ancient indians had space travel according to Vedas"
@@Tazy50 temples and their pillars are literally there to see and hear. it is not a claim but some prejudiced people like to bring claims by some nutjob to deny the existence of real things.
Gtugdjk says "yes ancient Greeks had space travel according Greek mythology " . So STFU.
I think I read a book about that in high school ;)
I love the idea that people through out ages have always liked to build and make cool or interesting stuff.
The same joy I and most kids around the world archived from discovering how fun it is to yell in tunnels, human history have been filled with but with their realities equivalents.
So, how was your last research project?
- I was screaming at a replica of Stonehenge all day
Hahahhahhhaa! Good one!
In India, Golconda Fort, Gol Gumbaz, several monuments built by Mughals (eg Akbar's Tomb) have been acoustically designed
If you speak in one part of the structure, a person standing several hundred feet away in designated locations can hear him speak
Not Only That, There Were Amazing Indian Temples That Consists Of Musical Pillars Such As:
1) Vijaya Vithala temple of 15th century in Hampi, Karnataka.
2) Madurai Meenakshi temple in 16th century, Tamil Nadu.
3) Suchindram Thanumalayan temple in 17th century, Tamil Nadu.
...That Were Capable Of Producing Wonderful Musical Notes Through Tapping Or Blowing Action Available For Everyone!
It's Literally Incredible How Our Ancestors Are Capable Of Such Sophisticated Understanding Of Engineering Despite The Lack Of Assistance Of Modern Technology, But Only Through The Ingenuity Of Their Own Back In Their Time!
@@maxplaysgamez-sharesgaming1756 Thnx bhai. I had no idea. Out of the three u mentioned, I have visited Meenakshi Temple only. But I don't remember seeing any musical pillars. Maybe bcoz I didn't explore the entire temple complex (its fricking huge)
Lucky for Mughals they had the Indians to engineer and construct their structures.
@@TheFourthWinchester Umm....The Mughals are Indians (except the Babur, the founder)
@@Bhatakti_Hawas www.nativeplanet.com/travel-guide/musical-pillars-in-south-india-002021.html
There are temples having musical pillars and tombs having echo chambers that amplify the slightest of whispers here in India. May be a similar topic of interest for you guys.
As an Applied Acoustics student myself, this is probably my favourite video now
I would like to see some episodes on old architecture ways that help to cool the building without the use of an air conditioner. Such as layout designs for best airflow and materials used that allow for buildings to be cooler inside as one would get with stone constructions
I believe they did one of those! I will check my playlists, and see if I can locate it. If I do, I'll come back and let you know the title so you can search for it. 🙂
While it’s unlikely the ancient folks who designed and built these sites knew the underlying physics at play to the same level we do, there’s little doubt in my mind that the acoustics were intentional. I would posit that many of the phenomena were accidentally discovered at first, and then once the geometries involved in creating them were understood, the civilizations that made them reproduced them at a larger scale. Bear in mind that most ancient ruins that have survived the eons were important, culturally significant structures and were built to higher standards, with more detail, better materials, and superior craftsmen than typical structures. The stone monuments survive, but the average family’s wooden house does not. It’s logical for these central structures to have intentional, special acoustical properties just as we do with important cultural venues today.
Tl;dr: It’s difficult to right off special acoustical phenomena popping up at important ancient cultural sites and monuments across civilizations and time repeatedly as being accidental.
Hear, hear! This is exactly what I thought when watching the video. Just calling it an accident by that point is kind of insulting to our ancestors.
I agree. They may have simply experienced the effects in natural caves and so on, and they might never have had quite the kind of technical terms we have now. But they would have known the basic "this shape of a wall makes the voice echo" quite well. And, because these were all "public spaces" in a sense - spaces intended for important social/emotional/religious happenings - they would indeed have had the best minds, the best hands, the best materials available.
I would add to this - every one of these examples were designed to mystify, to enhance emotional responses AND to inspire a deep sense of awe and wonder.
We already know that stone monuments of all sorts were basically always intended to inspire the viewers. Whether that was inspiring awe and respect for a king, or awe and fear of a deity, I think it's plain that a theater, a temple, a henge ALL share in common the wish to evoke strong feelings in their audiences. And so some portion of these designs is literally (sorry for the word play) for effect: precisely designed to get precise effects on the sounds made. Think about it: the builders and the priests were almost certainly better educated than the average layman in attendance at a temple. The layman would have had NO idea about the secret air ducts or special geometries or anything else. How much more powerful would a given event be if you experience sounds like no others you hear in your everyday life? Sounds you CAN'T explain for yourself? If the whole temple plaza is "singing" - could you not believe that the gods themselves are communicating with you? If you knew none of our modern day physics and science, and you heard that, would YOU believe it was just a dude with a conch shell in the basement? Of course not! (To be honest I probably wouldn't believe it even knowing some basic science!)
But these are REALLY great examples of some of the best minds of their respective times. Us humans are pretty nifty from time to time. And we sound good too!
How could they not understand the physics. Sorry but you don’t start carving and laying stone unless you have a design and a plan. No way they threw a bunch of stone together then sat around tweaking the stones to achieve an effect. It makes no sense.
Archimedes In Sicily knew more physics than 99% of American high school students.
I really would like to be able to hear acoustic examples for each site contained within this video
We have a very beautiful and well preserved Roman theater in my town. The singers that perform there indeed sound excellent. I dare say, they sound better than in an actual modern stage.
Romans sure knew how to build them. Our modern theaters are already falling apart, even the new ones, but this single 2000 year old theater is still standing. Really makes you think.
So, in the book "The Long Earth", there's a scene with two university students who have come out to some remote standing stones to test the acoustic of the stones themselves, but I didn't know that was an actual branch of archeology till now
Acoustic archeology sounds like a good song or novel.
I dig it man !
There are also acoustic weapons which can cause terrible pain.
Music was important to earlier people in history, that's why drums and wood (wind) pipes were always used in ceremonies...This is very interesting although I knew this cause I love historical sites and how people built with rocks...✌😷👋
Hypogeum is worth a trip to Malta all by itself. Prepare for a mind blowing assortment of ancient structures, some older than the pyramids or Stonehenge, in a country the size of the city of Detroit.
I was so surprised to hear him mentioning Malta, my home. I myself have never even been to the hypogeum as they only allow a limited number of people to access per year, so you have to plan your visit early
If you drop a coin in the centre of the stage in Epidauros the sound will carry up to the very last steps of the theatre, I have heard it.
I personally get this kind of vibe that you're describing in the last structure, when I listen to music like Heilung, Wardruna and the like.
Been on Epidaurus and on other ancient greek theaters and as a greek I have to say that I am very proud of these structures and how they have been so well preserved during the centuries! Plus the acoustic is amazing!
So these ancient structures created by ancient peoples with astounding precision in their stonework produce unusual acoustics, in one case producing a sound very similar to the call of a bird sacred to the builders and we wanna say we can't be sure if the acoustics were intentional or a happy accident?
I know the scientific process is about having an idea about a thing and then doing every test imaginable to prove the idea wrong or right, with many scientists being more excited about being proven wrong over being proven right, but it seems a little silly to me to think that these builders built these amazing structures and just accidentally produced these unique acoustical phenomena.
Especially when some of these sites are conducted in the name of religious worship. Nothing motivates a people like faith and the ancient people were a lot more sophisticated than modern times want to give them credit for.
These designs weren't an accident just as the universe did not evolve by accident therefore it must have been created by a creator just like these designs, created by men.
You can not prove an idea (read: theory) right.
But I am with you on this. These ancient people had the same physical and mental capacity as us. They didn't have electricity, no internet, no cranes, but they sure had a lot of knowledge and this was their entertainment. These theaters and places of worship were their youtube/TVs/cinemas.
Of course they put all their brain power into building them to get the best experience. Just like we put all our brain power into getting the best sound quality from tiny headphones and the most fluid animations on the most brilliant, colorful displays in the palm of our hands and what not.
Joe Scott recently made a video where he analyzed how long our human traces would last. Guess what: After just about 10k years, you'd barely recognize that we even existed. So I think it's plausible a LOT of the lifestyle and knowledge and even artifacts from ancient times are completely missing, so we assume all they had were those stone structures that we can see today. There was way more. Here's the video: czcams.com/video/xtJ49gXWwA0/video.html
In the end it's still speculation. You can't say it was on accident or on purpose for sure without some proof.
Bruh I know right!! The sound on the structure mimicks the sound of the bird Quetzal, and their deity, Quetzalcoatl is named after it!! It's like they think we're dumb and ancient people couldn't possibly be smart enough to create something so intricate. It pisses me off lmao
Right. It is beyond comprehension to undermine these ancient civilizations intelligence and awe-inspiring structures just because we no longer possess the same knowledge they once had. Instead of trying to deny their intelligence, we need to aspire in achieving our own intelligence to the same level.
That's very interesting to me as a structural engineer. Thank you for this type of video. Keep up the good work!
how did you watch the whole video!!
@@chloepeifly not
It’s funny because as a musician I also really loved this. I always knew there were two kinds of people watching this channel... actual scientists/engineers and stoners 😂
@@lelandshennett it's interesting what engineers and musicians have in common!
I had the pleasure of clapping at Chichen Itza in 2012. Also, next to the temple is a Pok-Ta-Pok court, where they played a Mayan sport that requires bouncing a ball off of the player's hip through a hoop; apparently, the ball bounce echoes on the temple and sounds even more like a bird than a clap does.
I saw a "football' field like this in the Anthropology museum of Mexico city ( they even had a rubber ball in the exhibit) but the game was very brutal and many people were killed.
I remember taking the tour at Hoover Dam and freaking out the tour when I would hum and set up a standing wave in the tunnel. I small hum at the right frequency made a very loud noise. The Hoover gods were very kind that day... :-)
All of this would partly explain why throat-singing spans cultures across the globe.
I've been watching the SciShow for about a year and I'm here just to say how much I appreciate Hank's effort when pronouncing Chichén Itzá, El Castillo, Quetzal, Chavín de Huántar, Lanzón. Nicely done for a non-native Spanish speaker, man! 🙌🏽
Those aren't even Spanish words dipshit. As a white American guy I feel so honored whenever I hear someone pronounce "burrito" correctly.
I remember when I visited the theater of Epidaurus, the guide threw a coin on the stage while I was way up high and I could hear that sound very clearly.
We JUST talked about the theatre of Epidaurus in my music history class last week! Awesome to see a video like this from scishow, especially as someone who is studying music education in undergrad, and misses taking science classes so watches scishow all the time :)
I get so excited when I see a new discovery in the area of frequency and sound. With how prevalent it's been in worship and such, I wonder if we might rediscover a facet to sound we've lost since the stone age.
I truly believe in the Tibetan Art of levitation with sound.
@@craigb8228 I don’t want to say I believe one way or the other but I’m very hopeful that it’s true and it’ll be rediscovered some time in the near future.
Sounds wonderful
Been to the Stonehenge replica, can confirm, so cool.
I think this is one of the coolest scishow episodes ever
Fascinating to get a glimpse of past lives, civilizations and how the world looked waaay back
I visited Epidaurus many years ago and remember that while standing in the uppermost bleachers you could easily hear the sound of footsteps on the gravel in the performance area.
I took a class that briefly touched on stuff like this and I LOVED it so THANK YOU for making this video ♥ I want to share it with everyone even though I know they're not as nerdy as I am about music and sound 😂
Love learning about the wild sciences ancient civilizations figured out early
I had no idea this branch of study existed. Thank you so much!
There’s plenty of reason to doubt that the greeks knew about the physics and science involved with the theatre on a technical level, but I would say that the observation of two similar sounds cancelling each other out or amplifying one another based on their distance from one another is something anyone with the need to look into that, such as an acoustics architect, could reasonably find with some simple experiments.
If this is the case, then said archetect would have lined the steps at the distance he found best for reducing background noise. This would be my hypothesis, which obviously needs evidence to support it (which is probably non-existent).
I was thinking either that, or more often, ancient architects would mimic eachothers work, so if one just happened to build a theater that amplified the right sounds, others would be more likely to copy it, and over time they'd improve.
I could listen to him say ‘patutus’ all day :D
I like the idea of humans going "I like this shape. oh look there is a sound side effect "
Please also cover the acoustics of the silent spots, those places where, by some reason, You speak but no one can hear you
Chicken itza was crazy sounds like a star wars blaster when you clap Benn there fun place
My favourite part is when Hank says "Pututu" 🤣
Great video as usual. I love the quick doses of information and everything they generally provide... Love the SciShow programs ❤️
A few years back, I was privileged to watch a performance of Carmen in the large Roman Amphitheatre, in Verona. The whole event was delivered acoustically, without the use of electronic amplification. The sound quality was excellent.
For keeping a straight face while saying, "pa tootoo" you got a 👍
The average person who lived in these ancient cultures probably understood the world better than the average person today.
The ball court at Chichen Itza has a really cool acoustic element. There are throne seats on either end of the court. If you talk to the back wall of these areas, your voice will heard clearly on the other end. I have experienced this myself when I visited.
super dumb that this video didn't include sound examples for any of these save for a two second example for the chichen itza. There REALLY should be examples for stuff like this.
Copyright is a thing
@@elfarlaur So is Fair Use. But maybe CZcams's algorithms are privileged above the law.
as an audio engineer, sound designer, singer and voice over artist, a few things:
1) resonance is everything. a couple mentions isnt enough.
2) talking about specific individual frequencies without also referring to the harmonic series is quite sophomoric. Frequencies that invoke brain activity in language vs emotion is ... just not a thing. Language is all the frequencies, emotion is all the frequencies. Sine waves (waves of singular frequencies and no harmonics) don't occur in nature, so our brains didn't evolve to respond to them specifically.
3) wind produces ALL frequencies, just at different amplitudes (see pink noise vs white noise). whispering is almost exclusively 1.5 kHz and higher.
4) All human voices, male and female, of all voice types produce fundamental frequencies below 500 Hz. The harmonic series accounts for vowel intelligibility. consonants are almost exclusively 4kHz and higher.
I was hoping you'd do #2, the Chichen Itza one!
My good friend, who has a lovely tenor speaking voice, has performed at Epidarus. He said the experience was incredible! Every utterance carried to the very back row.
It so interesting that most of these were places of worship! We put more effort when we are thinking of bigger things!
When I was at the Episkopi Amphitheater on Cyprus, I tested the sound clarity. It was amazing.
Actors in the ancient Hellenic world also wore masks with built in megaphones. It probably helped to increase the frequency.
gotta love being part of that notification squad :)
This is probably my favorite scishow episode that i've seen.
So ancient people definitely had more knowledge of sound and architecture than we currently give them credit for. could also be evidence for ancient people being in more connection with each other than previously thought where they share or traded knowledge
Regarding Epidaurus: Wouldn't the sound waves mainly be bouncing off people in a packed theatre? The way Hank talks about how sound is reflected by the steps makes it sound like the theatre was constructed to be used without an audience.
It really seems like the ancients from the deep past are trying to communicate with the future simply via the mathematical patterns expressed via their architecture; astronomical alignments that model (among other things) procession and size of the earth, acoustics, golden ratios, cryptic messages or "we exist," fibbanacci sequences and more all stretching back as far as ten thousand years ago or more. It's really fascinating and continuously throwing a wrench in our understanding of the human story. To me it's most exciting frontier of discovery on our planet.
Royal Raymond Rife used Herts to heal people. Starforts & cymatics are very interesting as well.
Thank you.
You should do some research on the temple pillars of Hampi, India. Each pillar produces the sound of a different musical instrument.
Early people probably thought that shamans and clerics and whatnot had divine powers because of the sound effects
That was an incredibly interesting episode, keep it up:)
the throne hall at Persepolis apparently also had unique acoustic and light amplifying design considerations. Highly polished and densely packed colonnade and a very high ceiling allowed for the king to speak to a large audience without having to raise his voice.
We have a similar thing to Chichen Itza in the town I live in. We call it the clap and squeak. Stand in the middle on this circle, clap, and it comes back as a squeak sound. You can only hear it if you stand directly in the middle, otherwise it just sounds like a clap.
Sci Show: discusses diffraction.
Also Sci Show: shows a clip of water droplets forming waves which does not show diffraction.
Love your content, though, guys :)
Also they keep sating diffraction and then showing examples of reflection.
Wikipedia says: "Diffraction refers to various phenomena that occur when a wave encounters an obstacle or opening. It is defined as the bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. " - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction
That is decidedly not what they talked about for the theatre and pyramid segments.
@@AthAthanasius True lol
The original chamber for the US House of Representatives was like the stone hinge example-is, it still exists and you can take a tour to see it. It’s shaped to amplify the voices at regular speaking volume so that you can hear someone in the opposite corner as crystal clearly as if they were right up in your face. It’s eerie and effective.
Seriously.... If you've never heard/watched Pink Floyd's Live from Pompeii, you're really missing out on a great audio experience, even though it was recorded in the 70's, the sound is phenomenal.
re. the idea that there is something in the range that male-chanting voices can reach might cause a 'spiritual' response in us: this might possibly be true, but what is definitely true is that it is always important to avoid equating correlation with cause and effect.
In this case, using adults in an area accessible to UCLA in 2008 would almost necessarily mean using research participants who grew up with TV hosts, news anchors, transit announcers, radio DJs, political speakers etc. etc., etc., even CZcams narrators, who were predominantly male (or even exclusively male depending on the age of the adults). That is, the research participants grew-up in a context being taught that male is the voice of authority, of reason, of learning, and of that which is important in the world. Often too, we are taught that women's voice have nothing important to say, that they are 'too high' and 'too squeaky' or some other 'insert-insult-here too', and that these female voices can be ignored (e.g. how often in a meeting is a woman's comment dismissed when the man is praised for *repeating the same comment* moments later?). This conditioning almost necessarily would have an impact on how these research-participant listeners responded to the frequencies of sound that they were exposed to during the research.
As it happens, depending on when the structures were built, the people from those times likely also grew-up being conditioned to believe that the male voice is the voice of reason, authority, and in fact in many cases of 'normal human' or even just 'human' as women were not considered to even be people but were rather chattel in those days. These people, however, lacked the mass media that make the conditioning so wide-spread in our times.
So, does it really put people in a spiritual mood or are we just responding to a noise that we have been conditioned to respond to as being 'worth listening too'? And, in consequence are these taught worth-listening-to voices those that also provoke in us an emotional reaction? Correlation is different than cause and effect and potential intervening variables are always important.
there are so many things that only come across as “unintuitively” as they do simply because 1st-world citizens tend to have way more assumptions than there is evidence to justify... so much of our education system, our media, our social norms are just... “you absolutely must take *this* and *this* for granted at all times for objective empirical utilitarian reasons, but never _this”_
...these initial default assumptions were just decided upon long ago in a different context to be the best of all possible assumptions to unite a population around... which may no longer be true in more recent contexts.... but if you try to make a case for this? too late! the norms have already been established, and you are disobeying them, and are thus a deviant/criminal regardless of any opposition, because opposition is ipso facto just a performative deception
Amazing! I am from Mexico and I didn't know that Chichen Itza pyramid has acoustics properties like those.
The Mary Hill Stone Henge in Mary Hill, Washington is definitely worth visiting. Its a short stop but pretty cool. While you are there, also check out the Mary Hill Art Museum just down the road from it.
How do you design something with sound in mind? Like if I wanted to clap and hear something specific back how would I go about designing that? Make a video on some of those hypothesis especially in ancient times?
This reminds me of growing up in PaloDuro Canyon.
There is a beautiful outdoor stage there.
10:40 this validates xxxtentacions say on 440 and 432hz music.
That 432hz is good for the mind while 440 is harsher on the mind.
That was even more interesting than I expected.
The temple with the shells that acts like one big instrument sounds like an amazing Zelda dungeon
Based off the comments in this video so far I’d say my hypothesis was correct. Most people who watch this channel are either actual students/scientists/engineers etc or stoners trying to get their mind blown 🤯
Or both!
Rockstar kush
‼️❓ I never even heard of acoustic archeology! That is so incredibly cool and fascinating! It's so _very_ interesting to think they may have already understood how acoustics work!
Thank you very much for this one, especially, and for all you do, Hank, et al!
The acoustics at the Stonehenge replica at Esperance, Western Australia are amazing.
In the south east of France, in a town named Orange we have an antique theater, the best preserved in the world. We have an opera festival each summer (except this year...). I went once, only once, as the price tickets are crazy, I make myself a nice birthday present. No regret !!! It was wonderful. 😸
History of the theater: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Theatre_of_Orange
History of the Choregies : en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chor%C3%A9gies_d%27Orange
many temples in India have very unique acoustic properties to their architecture, like temple with musical pillars or the hall where one can hear slightest whispers of people on the ground floor while standing on top floor. it can have a video of it's own
The range of human hearing ranges from 20hz to 20,000hz. It is most sensitive in the range of 2000-5000hz of which 500hz is a common multiple.
As you say in the video, most noise is below 500hz which would make it an ideal roll off point for unwanted frequencies. As the 3 octaves above that cutoff contain the frequencies we are most sensitive to.
I remember going to chitchen izta (Ik I just butchered that spelling), hearing that noise again just sent shivers down my spine. So cool but so strange. It’s unreal.
Ancient sites resonate at 70 - 140 Hz for the same reason we sing hymns and the Zen do Ho drones; same reason there are bells, drums, and gongs; sound resonance, standing waves, and specific frequencies all produce somatic effects that elevate us, center and calm us, and let us find more of our humanity.
Wow, I wasn't expecting you to mention my home island of Malta! Super cool video
i experienced the chichen itza effect many times when walking by a long wall made out of trapeziodal sheet metal, every step or clap sounds like that
i used to walk by a company that was built with it
It's a pity the Sydney Opera House went waaay over budget causing the builders to scrap the original design for the interior, which computer models have suggested was a work of acoustic genius.
Jørn Utzon was a genius architect period. It saddened me when I read that he wasn't invited to the opening ceremony
Oh cool. That Stonehenge park isn’t too far from where I live. Totally surprised me when we drove by it once lol. I’m going to check that out next time we go to WA.
Squad roll call
Another example of a waveguide is a section at Grand Central where you can stand in the corner and speak and a person at the opposite corner will be able to hear you quite clearly. I remember trying this out as a kid and being amazed. Not an ancient structure but still pretty cool.
Very well written episode. It (and Hank) did a great job of explaining the complicated concepts and giving examples that we lay people can understand!
wavelength = speed of sound / frequency
so a low ish frequency like 125Hz (and speed of sound in air at 20 degrees of about 340 m/s); the wavelength is about 2.7 meters. So that’s one of the reasons why a garden wall won’t stop bass noise. and why egg boxes stuck to your garage door won’t make your neighbor any happier about your drum lessons. For high frequencies the wavelength is much smaller. but this is a handy simple formula to work out some of the frequency specific dimensions mentioned in the vid :)