Hypersonic Effect (HFCs etc ...)
Reply #23 – 2009-01-03 02:30:02
I chose my words carefully, and said nothing about whether HFC has an effect on the human body, simply that we are unlikely to have a primary sensory organ sensitive to its reception. Yes. We've established that we can't hear ultrasound.To be pedantic, though, we do not feel UV on our skin, rather we feel the secondary effects of UV radiation on our skin - the fact that melanin converts 99% of UV received into heat. This is in sharp contrast to our primary skin perceptions of touch, temperature, and such. No need for pedantry, just some accuracy. I didn't say we "feel UV on our skin", I said "we feel its effect on our skin", thus if its effect (primary, secondary or tertiary) is damage or the conversion of UV into heat, then certainly, that is the effect we feel on our skin. Soap, you keep making stuff up to shoot it down: The same is likely true of HFC. If we have any sensitivity to them it is likely as a secondary effect, and the notion that the existence of HFC in a "natural environment" necessitates or even implies primary sensory ability is silly. The report never stated that "the existence of HFC in a "natural environment" necessitates or even implies primary sensory ability"; it suggested that it "is premature to conclude that consciously inaudible high-frequency sounds have no effect on the physiological state of listeners". That's very different. Seems to me the diminution of energy of high-frequency audio signals in air, would be enough to discount the idea that we feel 'ripples' by the time it reaches our skin. The only truly well-defined 'ultrasonic effect' is transduction via bone, which requires very close proximity to the source. Is this a well understood / studied area? I mean, isn't that also the case for bats? Surely whatever hits a bat's ear also hits our skin. But that doesn't mean we are as sensitive to it as bats are....or at all. I never suggested that we are as sensitive to HFCs as bats, I simply said that what reaches a bat, reaches a human. However, we don't seem to know whether or not we are completely insensitive to HFCs. I think it would be interesting to find out if we are or not, and if we are, to what degree and what is the effect. Surely it must be possible to conduct proper research on this: Fire some HFCs at people in a controlled environment and measure brain activity? I'm pretty certain that a) all this stuff is inaudible and b) we don't consciously register the "feeling" of HFCs hitting our skin. However, I believe that HFCs may have an effect on us and the fact that we're talking about it, suggests it's more controversial than the idea that things fall to the ground instead of falling skyward. It would be nice to get to the point where such controversy no longer exists. C. [EDIT: Typo]