Wherever we go, we are surrounded by sounds. Even in silence there is something: the ticking of a clock, the sound of the wind. Our senses are constantly processed by sounds.
As a rule, we do not think about how sound works and how it interacts with our ears and the world around us.
Only when we get into unusual zones, which can be called anomalous, where sound works in a completely different way, we notice such oddities.
This little-known outside of Oklahoma is located right in the center of Tulsa at 20 E. Archer St., next to the Boston Street Bridge and between the first and second Archer streets.
Here on the ground is a brick lined circle with a smaller red circle in the center. Among the locals, this place has received the nickname "Center of the Universe".
The circle appeared here in the 1980s, when the bridge was rebuilt after a fire, and once there was a part of the old bridge in this place. Now this spot has become known due to a very unusual sound anomaly, which so far no one has been able to clearly explain.
One of these effects is that if you stand exactly in the center of the red circle and shout loudly, then the sound will not go to the sides, but will deafen you. It’s like you’re in an echo chamber and not standing in the middle of a wide street.
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At the same time, people standing nearby will literally not hear you. At all.
In principle, any sound, quiet or loud, shouting or ordinary conversation, is felt in the center of the circle in a very unusual way. People standing next to the circle, as a rule, either do not hear it or hear it very illegibly in any case.
In this case, it is worth going a little beyond the limits of the small circle, then all acoustic oddities disappear.
How can this be explained, no one knows. There are no large objects near this circle from which sound could bounce. Moreover, no one can understand why this happens only when a person is standing in this small circle.
Another phenomenon in the same place is that if you are standing in a small circle and someone outside starts screaming at you, you, in turn, will also hear this person with great difficulty, as if he is not standing a few steps away from you, but at least across the street.
Attempts to explain these effects involved a part of a low wall nearby, which supposedly can create such an effect when sound from the wall is reflected from the metal parts of the support remaining in the red circle.
Another theory does not even incriminate certain cosmic vortices in anomalies, but it is already quite fantastic.
Another similar anomalous spot with unusual acoustics is in New York State.
There is a platform with a map of the lake and a compass. Something like an observation deck for tourists with benches.
In the middle of the circular platform there are two narrow metal stripes intersecting in the shape of the letter X. And if you stand at the intersection, turn towards the lake and yell at the top of your lungs, then this op will envelop you (as in the anomalous place in Tulsa), and people standing next to the site will hardly hear you.
This phenomenon has many attempts to explain, up to folk legends. According to this legend, the ancient Indian god Catchalotail once appeared here and part of his power remained in this place.
Another version indicates an unusual combination of the position of the mountains, lake and nearby wall.
“The acoustic effect in this place is caused by the reflection of sound from a semicircular stone wall. The sound goes back to the person who stands at the intersection of the lines next to the map of the lake.
It was then that this sound effect appeared. when this wall was built. Therefore, there is nothing mysterious here,”says local resident John O'Connor.
Another place with abnormal acoustics is the Hamilton Mausoleum, which is near Glasgow, Scotland. It was built in the 1800s as a tomb for the 10th Duke of Hamilton and is a large Romanesque building.
This house, due to its unusual acoustics, is sometimes called "the building with the longest response in the world", because if you make a loud scream at one end of it, then it will echo like an echo in only 15 seconds, or even only a minute!
No one knows why there is such a long echo, but some associate the features of the building site and building materials, as well as the rounded shapes of the walls.
Another strange echo effect can be felt at the top of the pyramid of Kukulkan, Chichen Itza. If you stand near the temple and make different sounds, clap your hands, stomp loudly, etc., then the sound quickly returns to you, as if in the air it is repelled from something.
Other places with unusual acoustic anomalies are popularly nicknamed "whispering galleries". In them, even a small sound will create a long echo that will be heard at a great distance.
One of these places is located at the central and oldest train station in New York. It is always a very noisy place filled with crowds of people, but there is one point here where the slightest whisper will be heard at a great distance.
This point is adjacent to the Grand Central Oyster Bar, and its anomaly is possibly related to the curved arched ceilings and ceramic floor tiles.
If two people stand at a distance of 12 meters from each other and one of them whispers something quietly, then the second will hear what was said in full and very clearly.
Other similar points are in the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol, St Paul's Cathedral in London and the 15th century Temple of Heaven in Beijing.