High Frequency Hearing, and the light spectrum... Options

[tjn]

Okay, we've been having a rollicking good time over in the Ultrasound thread... but this tangent struck me as I was mulling it over.

Given that High Frequency Hearing can appearently hear up to and including the Ultrasound level of frequency, and that the visual light spectrum lies between the Ultrasound spectrum and the normal audible spectrum...

Does that then mean if a character has High Frequency Hearing (however they get it) can now "hear" colors?

And given that radio, microwave, and IR spectrums are also between the audible spectrum and the ultrasound spectrum, does that make for one hellva lot of ambient noise?

And since they now hear in the radio spectrum, do they need radios to listen any more?

[Kagetenshi]

Uhwhawha?

Sound has nothing to do with the electromagnetic spectrum. Otherwise it'd move at ~299,792,458 meters per second, adjusted for medium. Edit: and pass through a vacuum.

~J

[Cursedsoul]

I probably have no place here but just a couple thoughts that came to mind.

Maybe there's some sort of integral blocking device to reduce the "ambient noise"?

Just to prove my ignorance, wouldn't the human body need some sort of converter to interpret the radio waves? Kind of like ASIST converters are required for otaku wanting to make use of the matrix.

I'm sorry. I'll return to my rock where I'll throw dung at passerbys.

[Person 404]

I'm assuming this is an elaborate joke, but if it's not:

visible light is between the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. Human-audible sound is between infra and ultra-sound.

[mfb]

jesus christ, what are they teaching you kids in school these days?

[Eyeless Blond]

Indeed. Sound (hearing) and light (vision) are two entirely different, almost unrelated entities. Sound is the compression and expansion of physical matter. Light is caused by oscilating electric and magnetic fields. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and milk. :)

[Kagetenshi]

[Wireknight]

I don't know how to respond in a way that won't lead to me getting banned... but, wow. Light != sound. Radio, infrared, ultraviolet, ionizing radiation, microwave, these are all forms of light above or below the visual spectrum. Ultrasound and infrasound are above and below the audible spectrum. The only thing that's even equatable, between light and sound, is that they're measured in spectrums. They are wholly different animals. Go pick up a science textbook.

[Kagetenshi]

Oh, there's more equateable. For instance, they are both waves, and as such behave in many similar ways. Only one of them also acts like a particle and is whacked when observed by people travelling different velocities.

~J

[tjn]

Err sorry :P too little sleep and musta not recognized the sound part of "ultrasound" and lept to the ultravision part of the vision spectrum.

I was laboring under the impression that sound was just another wave form, just far away from the wave forms we interpret as visual light. I coulda sworn on the big ass poster from my high school physics class that sound was on one end. Then again it's been ten years since I took it...

Like 0.3 meters wavelength for sound, and 400 to 700 nm for visable light.

Well, seems I'm wrong... learn something new every day :P

Tho, kinda killed the idea of the runner who "listened to the colors, man..." :dead:

Oh, and Wireknight: Go pick up a grammer textbook. I'm an lit major, I can argue thematics of the ancient Greek plays whilst critiquing Charles Dickens and comparing and contrasting Catcher in the Rye to The Great Gatsby.

Doesn't mean I'm perfect. I can make mistakes. Being ignorant of physics does not make me a horrible person. I know now, and can cross that off the list of things tjn doesn't know.

I'm sure there's other things I do not know, and when I learn them I surely hope to not learn it from one with such an attitude as yours.

[Kagetenshi]

No, you're entirely correct, sound is a wave much like light is (we're leaving the particle bit out for now). However, the similarity ends there. They're not equivalent just because they're both waves.

Edit: "an lit major"? ;)

~J

[tjn]

[hyzmarca]

[Dragonslayer]

Or have synesthesia. I probably just butchered the spelling but its basicly when one sense organ tries to interpret a different sense. The simplest example of this is close your eyes, and lightly! press on your eyelids. All sorts of colors, they move about if you change the pressure or move your fingers about a bit. This is you eyes trying to see the touch sense. And certain people have the same bit with seeing sound. There was an article in a science magazine about a guy who thought they turned the lights off at concerts so everyone could see the colors better, said violins made yellow light. Sounds a bit "News of the Wierd" I know, but I'm being serious. Ultimately if a runner goes into a crazy street doc for ultrasound hearing maybe the doc could mess with him and wire the ears into the area of the brain that usually deals with visual input. It would certainly mess things up for a while.

[Kagetenshi]

Furthermore, people with synaesthesia can do some interesting (if minor) things. For instance, if you're looking off towards the side of the page, a 5 surrounded by 4s above, below, to the left and to the right wouldn't be identifiable. However, say someone has synaesthesia and sees 5s as being red and 4s as being blue. They'd be able to tell there was a 5 there, not because they could read the 5, but because they'd see the red.

~J