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Re: perception of circling horn (was: Doppler Effect Question)



At 09:44 PM 4/19/00 -0500, Paul O. Johnson wrote:
>Assuming a horn frequency of 350 Hz, the sound wavelength will be about 1 m.
>The phase variation in the sound heard by your two ears as the horn
>traverses a circle around you will thus be about 1/5 of a cycle. I doubt
>that your brain can detect such a variance.

1) In general, human brains etc. are pretty good at localizing sound. Not
as good as owl brains, but not totally incompetent.

2) If the horn has a fundamental frequency of 350 Hz, it most likely will
have significant energy in the 3rd and 5th harmonics, making the
phase-detection job easier.

3) In addition to the phase variations, there will also be volume
variations, because of the directional properties of the pinnae et cetera.