h a l f b a k e r ycarpe demi
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
Loud fireworks often traumatise dogs, cats,
hedgehogs
etc, and also humans of a nervous disposition. Silent
fireworks are WKTE, as are "silent" discos, which
however achieve their unobtrusiveness via
headphones.
I suggest firework displays do the same. Each
firework
is accompanied
by a coordinated bang, whizz or
whistle
transmitted into spectators' wireless headphones,
which double as earmuffs when the firework display
is
happening in cold weather. The headphones can also
be turned off.
Result: happier hedgehogs etc.
Auto-dimming goggles
https://www.amazon....tion/dp/B00V7F2RT4/ [Dub, Nov 06 2018]
Snopes on silent fireworks
https://www.snopes....k/silent-fireworks/ Quoted in my anno [notexactly, Nov 07 2018]
Please log in.
If you're not logged in,
you can see what this page
looks like, but you will
not be able to add anything.
Destination URL.
E.g., https://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)
|
|
Headphones for pets would be good. Dogs and cats
are traumatised by loud fireworks. |
|
|
Not sure how you'd get headphones on every mammal
and bird within earshot, or in fact what earshot would
even be for some of them. I wonder if it messes up
bat echolocation. |
|
|
// cats are traumatised by loud fireworks. // |
|
|
Amongst other things ... but yes, fireworks are very useful in that respect. |
|
|
Hmmm, with one of them google glass cardboard + ear
phones, if your local fireworks were a bit boring you
could switch channels to a more exciting display. |
|
|
Admittedly you might be going "oooh" and "aaah" at
the wrong time, but that's freedom of wossername. |
|
|
But half the fun of firework displays is that you can see and
hear them for miles around, for free and at zero cost. You'd
have to have a major campaign of headphone distribution
ahead of the actual display. |
|
|
+1 but sycho doesn't seem bothered. |
|
|
Oh good. Unless that's due to deafness. |
|
|
// you can see and hear them for miles around // |
|
|
Oh, just a "garden" display, then ? |
|
|
If it doesn't register on every seismograph in the hemisphere, it's not worth having. We favour the "shock and awe" style of display, the sort where the survivors (if any) cannot deny they were impressed (i.e. crushed to the ground by the shock waves). |
|
|
Hmm, for next year how difficult would it be to divert
a minor comet? |
|
|
We prefer the idea of a Planetary Selection Box ... comets both small and large, various asteroids, a bag of mixed meteorites, some solar flares, a blurred sheet of badly-photocopied instructions, a pair of pound-shop safety goggles, and a sort of giant joss-stick with which you're supposed to set everything off. |
|
|
If you order now, we can deliver for Xmas or New Year. |
|
|
They could only work when they need to. Add goggles a mic SPL detector and a camera. Detect a flash (dim goggles to avoid flash shock), and estimate the explosion distance by measuring the time-gap, before muting audio, so next time the mute can start 200ms earlier... |
|
|
// Many readers seemed to come away with the impression that these
silent fireworks would appear just as big and bright as traditional
fireworks, but without the loud explosive booms normally associated
with them. Thats not the case, however [
] these silent firework
displays (which are probably better described as reduced noise
displays) dont typically include the big aerial explosions found in
traditional fireworks shows. Rather than employing some new form of
pyrotechnology that dampens the noise of traditional fireworks, such
quiet displays mostly make selective use of existing non-loud forms of
fireworks // |
|
|
Therefore, this idea proposes to use existing non-loud (and less visually
impressive) firework types, and artificially add sounds that they were
never supposed to have in the first place. (And headphones would never give you that thump in
your chest.) |
|
|
The logical extension of this idea is just to turn down the heating in your house, to simulate being outdoors, and then watch videos of firework displays on YouTube, with the volume set at whatever level you like. |
|
|
// headphones would never give you that thump in your chest // or on the soles of your feet (which you feel first, because shock waves travel faster in denser media), nor will speakers, because they can never reproduce the extremely fast rise time and very high peak value of an explosive pressure pulse. They can't even match the modest performance of propellants, or even deflagrants like black powder - which even if tightly confined is more of a bump than a bang. |
|
|
That "thump in your chest" feeling you experience
when a massive firework explodes can easily be
simulated by someone next to you wielding a cricket
bat. |
|
|
That's like saying that a rollercoaster gives the same sensations as being in an aerobatic aircraft, i.e, "doesn't even come close". |
|
|
"Blast surfing" - being much closer than is safe or advisable to pyrotechnics and explosives during their firing sequence - is a totally immersive experience. It's not just the thump on the chest, there's the flashes of light, and the taste and smell of combustion products; the patter of falling debris, the shockwaves made visible when humidity is high ... enthralling. |
|
|
Not dead, just resting ... |
|
|
Unfortunately, pyrotechnics sufficiently capable to be impressive indoors are also sufficiently capable of converting "indoors" into "outdoors" (if you neglect to open enough windows). |
|
|
Bulk overpressure's a sadly unforgiving phenomenon; 200 milliBar is quite capable of pushing out a masonry wall, let alone a mere sheet of glass. |
|
| |