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Inside quietest place on Earth where no one has lasted longer than 55 minutes

Home> News

Updated 13:17 15 Jul 2024 GMT+1Published 16:52 12 Jul 2024 GMT+1

Inside quietest place on Earth where no one has lasted longer than 55 minutes

It's so quiet in there that people were driven round the twist and physically couldn't stand it

Kit Roberts

Kit Roberts

Many people might think that they like peace and quiet, but in reality extreme quiet makes people physically uncomfortable.

So much so that not one person has managed to last for a full hour inside the quietest room in the world.

Watch the video below for a peek inside:

This is the Microsoft anechoic chamber, a room built by Microsoft to be the quietest room in the world.

It took two years to design and is located at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

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While it might sound like the perfect place to curl up with a book and a cup of tea, few people are able to stand it for long.

Imagine for a moment that you're in a very quiet room and someone next to you starts eating really loudly.

All you can hear is the churning sounds as they bite, chew, and swallow. Sounds horrible right?

Well this room is so quiet that you get the equivalent of that, but with the sound of your own blood flowing, your heart beating, your ears ringing, and even your bones grinding together.

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Still sound like a nice place?

Take a look inside Microsoft's anechoic chamber.
Microsoft/YouTube

Speaking to CNN, Hundraj Gopal at Microsoft said: “The longest continuous time anyone has spent inside the chamber is about 55 minutes."

Steve Orfield has a aneochoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota, and told The Daily Mail that as time goes on your body adapts to the silent environment.

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He said: "You'll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound."

Because there are not any external sounds either, even moving your body becomes dificult.

Orfield explained: "If you're in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair."

But how does it work?

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When the door is open, loud heavy metal can be heard from the other room.
Microsoft/YouTube

Principal Human Factors Engineer Gopal explained that the chamber is composed of six layers of concrete and steel which insulates it from the outside.

Within the chamber there is an extreme amount of acoustic insulation to absorb as much as 99.99 percent of echoes within the room.

It's so effective that popping a balloon barely even registers.

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The chamber also sits on a set of springs which further dampen any vibrations.

Taken altogether it's the Guinness World Record holder for the quietest place in the world, having a sound level 20 decibels lower than humans can even hear.

The chamber is used to research new audio technologies.

Gopal explains: “From measuring Xbox’s console fan noise for example, or the components in a surface - some of the components make sounds - very low level - but they are there, we measure them in this clean environment which is the purest form of recording without being interference from the walls or from the outside.

Featured Image Credit: Microsoft/YouTube

Topics: Microsoft, Science, US News, News, Technology

Kit Roberts
Kit Roberts

Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.

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