Fall 2007
Spooky Quiet
"When you close the doors in the room, you're totally deprived of sound — you start hearing the blood flow through your veins and your heart beating. It's just eerie," says Doug Reynolds of UNLV's anechoic chamber. The room blocks out all external noise and the fiberglass wedges lining the walls absorb the echoes within the room, so no sound bounces around. Researchers use the room to calibrate sound sources, determining exactly how much noise a speaker or a piece of equipment will add to a room. Reynolds, a mechanical engineering professor, is director of the Center for Mechanical and Environmental Systems Technology, which researches air quality, ventilation systems, and human exposure to sound and vibration.
Photo by R. Marsh Starks