Here's a Weird One

[crokett]

My oldest woke up crying in the middle of the night last night saying she heard a beeping noise. After listening to my wife calm her down and try and convince her there was not a noise, I went in and vaguely heard something that sounded like feedback from a mic near a speaker, but higher pitch. My wife couldn't hear it. I started unplugging things before finally tracking it down to my daughter's bed - it was a stuffed dog puppet that barked when you squeezed a sound module in its belly. Evidently the module malfunctioned.

My daughter could hear it, I could but my wife couldn't. When I left it in the hall to ask my daughter if the noise went away, the dogs started whimpering. I took the batteries out. This morning as a test my in-laws couldn't hear the noise either but my youngest covered her ears.

[JoeyGee]

Somewhere the police are using a device to disperse crowds of teens. It's a device that creates a sound that youngsters can hear, but not adults. Supposedly, it's very annoying.

I don't know where that was, but I saw an article awhile back. Apparently, we lose the ability to hear above a certain frequency as we age.

[Uncle Cracker]

I have recently read on the 'net about the hearing degradation that generally begins after teen years. It's frequency-specific, and only limited to a few tonal bands. I took the test, as did my eldest grandson. He could plainly hear the sound bites, whereas I could only barely hear a couple of them, and was totally deaf to others. As I recall, somebody posted one of those tests here on this website a short time ago, but I could hear most of the tones in that one.

[Tom Slick]

This might help
http://blog.mlive.com/saginawnews/20...orks_as_a.html

sound link
http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/

[shoottx]

What did you say?

[cgallery]

They had that test floating around (I think it was even posted here) that demonstrated that high-pitched tone kids use on their cell phones as a ring tone. Teachers can't hear it. My wife can't hear it.

I hear it. But I don't know whether I hear it as loudly as my kids do. I'm in my 40's and so my high frequency hearing should be rolling off pretty quickly now.

[RayintheUK]

Somewhere the police are using a device to disperse crowds of teens. It's a device that creates a sound that youngsters can hear, but not adults. Supposedly, it's very annoying.

It was in the UK. News items for your information here and here.

Ray

[jking]

I have recently read on the 'net about the hearing degradation that generally begins after teen years. It's frequency-specific, and only limited to a few tonal bands. I took the test, as did my eldest grandson. He could plainly hear the sound bites, whereas I could only barely hear a couple of them, and was totally deaf to others. As I recall, somebody posted one of those tests here on this website a short time ago, but I could hear most of the tones in that one.

And hearing degradation is also influenced by what you are exposed to, as many of us are aware. I can remember when I was younger we had a small TV in the kitchen that started making a very high pitched noise (not terribly loud) when it was turned on. My brothers & I could all hear it, but, my dad had no idea what we were talking about. Years of working in tractors without proper hearing protection damaged his high frequency hearing.

I have a friend from college who has lost quite a bit of his mid-range hearing. He can low frequencies & high ones fine. He can hear wingbeats of ducks long before I can, but, has started having problems hearing conversations at a normal volume level.

[jackellis]

...and then there are older folks who think they're becoming deaf, only to find out their hearing is fine so long as the speaker is someone other than their spouse

We know a couple who did, in fact, think they were losing their hearing until they had hearing tests done. They run a game ranch in Namibia (Africa) and spend a lot of time together with no one else around.

[pierhogunn]

I guess that's why some folks can hear the whine of a TV when it's on, with older TV's I could hear it from about 200' away when they were first turned on... Also dog whistles were irritating when I was younger...

[mschrank]

It's a good thing you were able to hear it, David. I know how frustrated children get when their "grown-ups" don't understand their concerns.

Had you not heard it, she would've kept complaining until you and your wife began thinking she was nuts!