Hershey’s Kisses are named after the kissing sound the deposited chocolate makes as it falls from the machine on the conveyor belt.
100 Mind-Blowing Sound Facts
Tic Tacs got their name from the sound they make when they are tossed around in their container.
The sound of a Star Wars lightsaber was created by pairing together the sound of an idle film projector and the buzz from an old TV set.
The call of a Kookaburra is used as the stock jungle sound effect in many movies and shows set in the jungles of Africa or South America, even though they are only in Australia and New Guinea.
The Sun makes a sound but we can’t hear it. In the form of pressure waves, the Sun does make a sound. The wavelength of the pressure waves from the Sun is measured in hundreds of miles, however, meaning they are far beyond the range of human hearing.
Sound can be minus decibels. The quietest place on Earth is Microsoft’s anechoic chamber in Redmond, WA, USA, at -20.6 decibels. These anechoic chambers are built out of heavy concrete and brick and are mounted on springs to stop vibrations from getting in through the floor.
You don’t like the sound of your voice because of the bones in your head. This may be because the bones in our head make our voice sound deeper.
Dogs tilt their heads when you speak to them to better pinpoint familiar words. Your dog is tilting its head when you speak to it to pinpoint where noises are coming from more quickly. This is done to listen out more accurately for familiar words such as ‘walkies’ and helps them to better understand the tone of your voice. If a dog doesn’t tilt its head that often (as those with shorter muzzles might), it’s because it relies less on sound and more on sight.
The MGM lion roar is trademarked. At the start of any movie made by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, the iconic lion roars at the audience. While MGM has gone through several iterations of lion mascots, the sound of the roar is always the same. The company trademarked the “sound mark” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the 1980s.
It’s impossible to hum while holding your nose. You just tested it, didn’t you? Normally, when you hum, the air can escape through your nose to create the sound, and of course, it can’t do that when you’re holding it shut. This is one of the weird facts you can test out for yourself. Go ahead, try it.
The British royal family is named after Windsor. You’d think Windsor Castle was named after the House of Windsor, but it’s the other way around. The royal family changed its name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1917 so it would sound less German and chose Windsor because they had ties with the English town.
Michelangelo wrote a poem about how much he hated painting the Sistine Chapel. One translation of the poem he sent to his friend begins: I’ve already grown a goitre from this torture, hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy (or anywhere else where the stagnant water’s poison). Doesn’t sound like he was too thrilled with his task.
Researchers once turned a live cat into a telephone. Princeton researchers Ernest Wever and Charles Bray took out a cat’s skull and most of its brain to connect the animal to electricity. When they spoke into the cat’s ear, the sound could be heard through a phone receiver in another room. The twisted experiment paved the way for cochlear implant developments.
‘Mellifluous’ is a sound that is pleasingly smooth and musical to hear.
The directors of the film Despicable Me wrote their language for the Minions. It may sound like total gibberish, but the famed (or infamous) Minions of the Despicable Me franchise speak an actual language. The directors combined Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Filipino (Tagalog), French and Russian to create Minionese.
Herring fish communicate by farting. When herring fish release gas, the bubbles they produce make a high-frequency sound that only herring can hear. The fish use this noise to arrange themselves into “protective shoals” during the night to keep them safe from predators.
Tic Tacs got their name from the sound they make. Ever shaken a Tic Tac container out of boredom? You’d be surprised to know that the name Tic Tac comes from the tic-ing and tac-ing sound the candies make when tossed around in their container.
The sound of a Star Wars lightsaber is the combined sound of a film projector and noise from an old TV. Sound designer Ben Burtt created the iconic whooshing sound of lightsabers almost accidentally. The sound made when lightsabers make an impact resulted from TV feedback on a shieldless microphone – which Burtt discovered on accident while looking for something to add to the projector hum.
Hershey’s Kisses were named after the kissing sound, the chocolate makes on the conveyor belt. Before discovering this fun fact, I thought Kisses were named after the shape your mouth makes when you place the chocolate on your lips, tip-first. However, Hershey’s is named for the sound it makes during the manufacturing process. A machine squirts the chocolate mixture onto the conveyor with a “kiss” sound. Another Hershey’s fun fact? The paper-strip plume on top of Hershey’s Kisses is trademarked.
The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs. Insects are known to be all sorts of strange, but this is one of the cooler fun facts: The katydid hears with its legs! The katydid’s ears are located on its two front legs. Like the human ear, the ear of the katydid collects sound, converts it, and analyses the frequency.
The sound of the automatic doors opening on the U.S.S. Enterprise is made by a toilet. One of the fun facts about the rich world of Star Trek is the story behind the U.S.S. Enterprise’s doors: The distinct sound is the sound of a Russian train’s toilet flushing.
Glaciers make sounds. Aside from the sound of global warming, melting glaciers and icebergs emit a sound similar to fizzling soft drinks that experts have dubbed the “bergy seltzer.” It occurs when melting water frees tiny bubbles of air under enormous pressure, resulting in a sound so loud that it can be used to determine the distance of icebergs.
You cannot crack your knuckles. The sound it makes is due to the gasses that are released when you put pressure on them. When joints are stretched, the pockets of gas between the joints are released.
Melting glaciers make fizzy noises. This is also known as bergy seltzer because of how similar it sounds to fizzing soda. The sound is mainly due to the melting waters that free tiny bubbles trapped in ice.
Basenji dogs can’t bark. However, this does not mean that they are silent. The sound that they release is more of a warbling yodel. This specific breed of dog is the only dog that cannot bark.
Minnesota has the world’s quietest room. The noise in this room is measured in negative decibels. It is so quiet, that you can hear your heartbeat as well as the sound of your bones moving. People say that this room is so quiet that it can also drive you crazy within 45 minutes.
Flies hum in the key of F. The buzzing sound they make is caused by their wings when they fly. The sound will either be a low or high buzz depending on the species.
A surgical procedure that removes fear from your brain exists. This process is called selective amygdalohippocampectomy and is used to treat patients with epilepsy. While this may sound like a process you would want to try, it comes with consequences.
Inhaling helium will cause your voice to travel through your vocal cords quickly. This causes your voice to sound higher.
Roosters have built-in earplugs in them. Research has found that when a rooster opens its beak to crow, its external auditory canals close off. This prevents the sound from coming in and acts as an earplug for them. A rooster’s crow is usually around 140 decibels and higher.
Until it blows against something, the wind makes no sound. Ready for more did you know the facts? The sounds you hear during a windy day are due to the speed of the wind coming into contact with various objects at the same time. The process of friction can also cause sounds at higher pitches depending on the speed of the wind.
There is no sound in space. Sound normally travels by vibrations in the air. However, there are no molecules of air to vibrate in space.
Mozart once sold more CDs than Beyoncé. This friendly competition between two musical greats may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s one of the interesting facts that happened. The Universal Music Group released a box set for Mozart’s 225th death anniversary in 2016. With 200 discs of Mozart’s work in each set, each disc was counted as one CD sold. Get the last box set and listen for yourself.
Pencil means “paintbrush.” It’s one of the interesting facts that sound like we’re kidding, but we’re serious. The word “pencil” comes from the Old French word pincel, which translates to “a small paintbrush.”
U.S. President Coolidge used to sound emergency bells as a joke. The 30th U.S. president made a habit of sounding the emergency bell placed on his veranda and then hiding when the Secret Service came. He did this enough times to make them remove the bell altogether.
Lachanophobia is the fear of vegetables. The word originates from the Greek lachno (vegetables) and phobos (fear or aversion). This may be one of the funny facts that sound like we’re just making things up, but there is a medical diagnosis for the fear of veggies. In 2009, a woman was diagnosed with the condition. However, since she had a baby to care for, she overcame her phobia.
A sound engineer once got accidentally high on LSD while cleaning an old radio. When Eliot Curtis tried to restore an old Buchla Model 100 synthesizer, he ended up tripping on 50-year-old LSD. He only noticed a crystalline substance that had gathered on the radio, which he wiped off. Since he found it in a dark closet at a university, the psychedelic components were preserved. The LSD residue dissolved in his hands and got him into a 9-hour trip. How’s that for wild funny facts?
Before Alexander Fleming named penicillin, he called it “mould juice.” It may sound like a term someone coined on Tumblr, but Alexander Flaming did refer to penicillin as “mould juice” when he discovered it in 1928.
Dogs like squeaking toys because they sound like their prey. Dogs are known to have a fixation on squeaky toys. Although dogs have been domesticated by man, they still retain some of their animal instincts – which is why squeaky toys stimulate them. Squeaky toys almost sound like small prey screaming for their life. Now that’s one of the WTF facts you could’ve lived without ever knowing.
Dancing mania killed 15 people a day in 1518. Dancing mania isn’t an arcade game, but a mass psychogenic illness in the Middle Ages characterised by non-stop dancing. It may sound like a cartoon plot, but these people would dance until their feet bled and collapsed from exhaustion. Until now, the phenomenon has no confirmed explanation.
Water makes different pouring sounds depending on its temperature. If you have a keen ear, you’ll notice that hot water and cold water sound a bit different when being poured. Heat changes the thickness or viscosity of the water, which gives its pouring sound a different pitch. Cold water is more viscous and makes a higher-pitched sound.
Bald eagles don’t sound like in the movies. If you’ve seen a Western film, the iconic bird screech comes to mind. However, you’d be surprised that it’s not the sound of a bald eagle. The piercing call that most people associate with the bird is a sound made by another bird of prey: the red-tailed hawk. Hollywood uses the red-tailed hawk’s cry because it has a more dramatic effect. Real bald eagles would chirp rather than screeching.
Junk food is as addictive as drugs. The struggle to quit and the tendency to lose control may sound like a drug problem, but it’s a similar problem for junk food. According to a study, eating junk food has a similar effect on brain activity as narcotics do. This phenomenon is more common with highly processed food such as fast food and instant food. Isn’t that one of the useless facts you wish you didn’t know?
Underground is the only English word that begins and ends with the letters “-und.” There’s another one of the useless facts you can use to sound smart.
The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly.
The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear. Any cup-shaped object placed over the ear produces the same effect.
Butterflies taste with their feet. This may sound strange to us humans but butterflies do rely on their feet to taste food as they have sensors on their feet which helps them locate food for their caterpillars. So, they stand on a leaf to try the taste.
Your brain is constantly eating itself. Called phagocytosis, this process allows cells to envelop and consume smaller cells or molecules to remove them from the system. It might sound a little scary, but it’s a good thing since it helps our brains preserve grey matter!
The Sun is not silent. That Sun above us does make sound through pressure waves. But the weird science fact here is that the wavelength of the sun’s pressure waves is impossible to capture with human hearing.
Sound can be in negative decibels.
Sound does not carry in space.
The familiar ‘twit-twoo’ sound of the tawny owl comes from a male and female pair. The female’s main call is the ‘twit’ or ‘kewick’ sound, while the male’s reply is the loud ‘twoo’ or hooting sound.
The word “swan” is derived from the Indo-European root *swen, meaning “to sound, to sing.”
In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho, the sound effects for the famous shower scene were created by repeatedly stabbing a casaba melon.
The sound of Darth Vader’s difficult breathing was made with a scuba regulator.
The original name of Microsoft Windows was “Interface Manager”. In 1981, Microsoft began the development of a program called “Interface Manager”. Most people won’t recognise that name because Interface Manager became Windows in 1983. Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in 1985, and it’s now the most common operating system in the world. It’s hard to believe the OS would be successful with its original name. Interface Manager perfectly describes what Windows would become. In the marketing department, making that name sound interesting or useful would have been impossible. Everyone recognises Windows, and millions of computers run on Windows 10 today. Interface Manager should be considered a work-in-progress name and something best left in the past.
The original Xbox had sound snippets of real space missions. The original Xbox contained edited sound bites from actual transmissions from the Apollo missions. If you left the Xbox on the home screen, eventually, you’ll hear whispers of conversation – actual chatter from the Apollo mission.
Every person on Earth is living in the past. This may sound like the plot of some sci-fi, time-travel thriller, but it’s a fact of human biology and the trickiness of time. Our brains don’t perceive events until about 80 milliseconds after they’ve happened. This fine line between the present and the past is part of the reason why some physicists argue that there’s no such thing as “now” and that the present moment is no more than an illusion.
There are 20,323,379 lines of code in the Linux kernel as of 2018. That might sound like a lot but it’s the smallest the kernel has been for some time! Even so, despite the recent reductions, the huge line count means Linux remains the single largest open-source project on the planet.
Bizarre though it may sound 13.3% of the latest Linux kernel is made up of …blank lines. Pointless? Hardly: blank lines are part of the strict coding style that keeps the kernel tidy, efficient and ordered.