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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Horn 'OK' Please





It was boring to stare outside from a window of a bus, when the picture doesn't change. Perhaps universe as the motion picture has lost its motion. There was this huge 18 wheeler trailer truck covered with the dust. And, in the rain, the dust has become mud. Though mud splattered all over it, but can see some example of street-side art done all over with bright colors and 'Horn OK Please' painted with some strings decorated at the side. 

Yes, I guess we are stuck and had almost spent more than thirty minutes, but this jam is not ready to ease. This waiting is creating chaos, and for sure this jam must be appended with more buses, trucks and cars adding to its complexity. 

However, my gaze is drawn back to same phrase 'Horn OK Please' painted over that shabby faded trailer. Why 'Horn Please' is OK. Why sound is so OK? What if sound is not attenuated? But then light also attenuates, however still we see light from stars. Does sound completely die after some time? Is there a sound boundary? Attenuation of sound can be graphically represented in a power spectrum, i.e. loudness vs frequency or waveform, i.e. pressure vs time. 

UDFy-38135539, which is also known as Hubble Ultra Deep Field, age of this light is 13.1 billion years. In depth I don't have the knowledge wherewithal to paraphrase the process  how age of light is calculated, but it has something to do with redshift. Expansion of the universe has stretched its wavelength. Wherefore, shifting of light towards the red end of the spectrum is directly proportional to increase of distance from source. This effect of stretching light waves from distant stars help in finding its source/position and the age of light. 

Wandered apart from original thought, why we are able to see light, from big bang of universe (13.75 billion years ago) but sound. As the sound working mechanism says that sound requires some compressible medium to propagate. And, since it is (almost) vacuum in outer space; so no sound. In order to support a contradictory thought lets consider the semblance on sound vs sound medium with light vs light sources. if we require light to perceive about light source then sound is perceived to us due to air. Now the say is if it is discernible to have colors in the dark, discernibly objects may produce sounds in a vacuum. 

We know when we see light we actually see the source of light. We never perceive the light Per se but the source. However with sound we presume to hear medium but not the source event. We hear waves due to air but not the bell itself. But it sounds contradictory. Sound is due to movement of waves, but the sound is not actually heard as propagating in any direction; only moving source emits moving sounds. Which means instead of wave movement we sense stationary sound from stationary source or moving sound from moving source. If it is really the movement of wave we are hearing then we might not be hearing them as they are. However, the analogy asses to assume, the knowledge of sounds with sound waves is insufficient and leaves some place wanting.

Sound is created in outer space and is not able to propagate due to lack of medium. However, according to first law of thermodynamics; the energy conservation law, 'Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.' So the energy cannot disappear. It has to be transformed into another form of energy. Sound created in outer space is transformed to some form. "Heat" cannot be completely as an answer, IMHO. Otherwise, AC wouldn't have been successful in kindergarten (crying babies) or a rock concert would have always ended with fire alarm. 

Few days back I was reading about how sound played a vital role in shaping and structuring of early universe. Vice-verse shape has also always played salient role in sound dynamics. Does the shape of Universe has something to do with sound? As there are various philosophies spawning correspondent to 'Shape of Universe'. 

Maybe, there is no sound as nobody is there to hear it. Quantum mechanics is famous for saying that a tree falling in a forest, when there's no one there doesn't make a sound. But then if we go with quantum physics completely then not only would it not make a sound, but there would be no tree. However, there is tree but no sound . Missing mass problem lead us to discover dark matter, does missing sound clue for something. 

Back in time famous Aristotle mentioned 'Horror vacui', nature abhors a vacuum. So if nature abhors the vacuum, then in outer space, vacuum is not really the vacuum at all. True as it is full of dust (hydrogen helium plasma), dark matter, dark energy and Higgs bosons. And, recently explained how it makes particles to acquire mass. Also, there is an explanation for hypothesized waves of dark matter. So waves and particles are there (along with wave-particle duality of photons; pun intended). As per my understanding sound is due to mechanical waves produced due to vibration of molecules in the medium. Let us go one step below an atomic level. Phenomenon to have smaller particles vibrating and causing waves. Hmmm 'may be' they are small enough to cause significance, which can be detected, but then we cannot have different theories as per size. Small things do affect larger bodies. It's quite visible in quantum physics. And if something small can make significance then, with wherewithal understanding of dark matter, and the dark energy, and even more mysterious force that is driving the universe to expand at an accelerating pace, it will be a thoughtless decision to overlook any relation of sound with these, IMHO.

Since big bang has both light  and sound, let us understand the journey of the universe from big bang to today. The initial state of the universe after the big bang  was like a dense fog, as light couldn't escape out of this fog without hitting electrons. However, with expansion and the cooling of universe, protons and electron combined to form atom and matter and planets and stars and galaxies and more. With this continuous process of expansion, the universe almost became transparent and allowing the light to travel in space and reaching us 13.7 billion later. Similarly, the initial fog allowed to transmit sound waves. However, with expansion, the fog cleared; the sound waves would have remained as countless ripples of material, ripples overlapping again and again. And, after 13.7 billion later the sound gets quieter and deeper in tone, too faint to be detectable today, but in future with more advanced sensitive development. Perhaps in future 'Horn Please' will not be OK as we might are creating ripples which attenuates but, doesn't die.


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