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Re: (meteorobs) Re: [nhas] Did you hear any Leonids?

This discussion of hearing Leonids is very interesting.  I heard a hissing,
sizzlining sound several times during my November 18th observations.  The
people obseving with me heard it to.  But I sort of wrote it off as an
acoustic/optical illusion , psychoperceptual illusion.
I even told them that although it was possible for a large fireball to
produce a sonic boom, we would not see and hear them at the same time.  I
completely dismissed what I had heard myself.

What a interesting phenomenon.  I'll be interested in learning what further
research on the subject might discover.

Clear Skies

Tod
Miami
-----Original Message-----
From: Lew Gramer <dedalus@latrade.com>
To: Meteor Observing Mailing List <meteorobs@atmob.org>
Cc: Lew Gramer (me) <dedalus@alum.mitdot edu>
Date: Monday, December 03, 2001 6:58 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Re: [nhas] Did you hear any Leonids?


>
>>I was wondering if any one thinks that the supposed
>>sound is a mental thing.  We are conditioned when we
>>see a bright flash to anticipate a loud sound (i.e.,
>>lightning and thunder, TV explosions).
>
>
>Rob, before Dr. Keay's proposed geomagnetic mechanism for electrophonic
>sound, I think the "psychological" explanation was the one most commonly
>used to explain (some might say to "dismiss") these sounds...
>
>I would have happily agreed with that reasoning myself, except that one
>of the two occasions when I heard the simultaneous sound from a fireball,
>I in fact HEARD the fireball BEFORE I saw it... Luckily, it was a longer
>lasting Leonid (low elevation, far from the radiant) and my head was very
>quick. Now obviously, mine is just one datapoint - and is in fact what is
>usually called anecdotal evidence - so of no value in establishing whether
>these sounds are in fact produced mechanically by meteors or not. However,
>this experience was certainly enough for me personally, to keep an open
>mind on the subject of electrophonics. And that open mind has been some-
>what rewarded in recent years, by the spate of what seem to be successful
>recordings of electrophonic sounds by various Leonid observing campaigns.
>
>That said, even if Dr. Keay's mechanism does prove to be a valid explan-
>ation for some electrophonics, there is always a possibility (and a very
>real possibility at that) that SOME instances of observers reporting such
>sounds may be attributable to "suggestibility", or to other psychological
>or psychoperceptual explanations. It seems like an interesting area for
>research, in any case... particularly, if we are privileged to experience
>another extraordinary Leonid apparition next year, like that of 2001...
>
>Nothing helps make hypothesis testing easy, like easy reproducibility! :)
>
>
>PS: One possible explanation for your experience of "hearing" a fireball
>which your wife did not hear, is that Dr. Keay's explanation relies on a
>"resonator" in your local environment to actually produce a sound from
>the radio waves being generated in the upper atmosphere... And in fact,
>a commonly proposed resonator is human hair... Another, or so I'd guess,
>would be tooth fillings, or other metallic accoutrements near one's ear,
>such as a coat zipper. But this latter idea is just my own interpolation!
>
>Clear skies all,
>Lew Gramer
>
>
>The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
>If you are interested in complete links on the 2001 LEONIDS, see:
>http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html
>To stop getting email from the 'meteorobs' list, use the Web form at:
>http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html
>

The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
If you are interested in complete links on the 2001 LEONIDS, see:
http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html
To stop getting email from the 'meteorobs' list, use the Web form at:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html