The Guiness-recognized world’s quietest room was created by scientists at Minneapolis’ Orfield Labs. The room is anechoic, meaning it creates no echos, no reverberation and makes it impossible to detect traces of outside noise. It is used by manufacturers to test noise levels of products like LED lights and displays for cell phones.
How does it work?
The room is located through two bank vault doors, soundproofed by 3’ thick acoustic panels of fibreglass wedges covered in fibreglass fabric that absorb sound and prevent it from being bounced off the walls.
The human ear is only capable of picking up sounds greater than 0 decibels, and this room’s sound level measures -9.4 dB, comparable to a typical quiet room of 30 dB. We are so used to constantly being surrounded by sounds, the experience of being in the room is said to be uncomfortable and unbearable after a time. It is possible to hear your own organs functioning, particularly the ears, which emit their own noise in the absence of sound. The lack of noise is so disorienting that it is said to cause hallucinations, and throw off balance, making it imperative for people in the chamber for extended periods of time to sit down. The longest reported time anyone has spent in the chamber is 45 minutes.
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