I was standing outside today, and noticed that as a train went by, the sound was loud in all directions yet we still have had numerous cases where pedestrians wearing earbuds have been killed by trains because they did not hear the horn.
I have noticed, however, that cars driving down the street with their sub-woofers blasting can still be felt over the noise of the horn blowing.
This idea would affix a speaker to the front of the train that would blast a low frequency tone ahead of the train. The speaker ideally would have an enclosure that "directed" the sound forward and directly at anyone ahead of the train and would limit the spread of the sound to surrounding neighborhoods. I would suggest a "stuttered" and ramped tone to startle the person on the tracks by getting their attention.
The distance needed to send the sound should be relatively short (this being a last ditch effort to signal a pedestrian or car) so it should not be necessary to blow with the regular train horn and the subsonic vibrations would alert the person in time to jump to safety when sounded.-- Klaatu, Apr 27 2011 Good idea. Even better, that microwave nonlethal crowd dispersal technology which causes pain without, supposedly, actual injury. An additional advantage would be that it's directional: no need to bother people not in the path of the vehicle.-- mouseposture, Apr 27 2011 Maybe if there was some way of visually warning people to stop and look... like a couple of huge freakin' metal rails or something. [+] though.-- FlyingToaster, Apr 28 2011 //Maybe if there was some way of visually warning people//
You would think that the flashing lights and the gates with *more* flashing lights would suffice. I watch people texting with earbuds who walk directly in front of cars. Maybe it's nature's way of thinning the herd...?-- Klaatu, Apr 28 2011 Blatantly counter-evolutionary measure (-)-- Twizz, Apr 28 2011 //Blatantly counter-evolutionary measure//
Nothing anti-evolutionary, just might take a while for the distracted pedestrian who can survive being hit by a truck evolves?-- not_morrison_rm, Apr 28 2011 //Blatantly counter-evolutionary measure //
Agreed, Twizz. I am not overly-concerned with facilitating the propagation of such DNA.-- MikeD, Apr 28 2011 What [Twizz] and [MikeD] said.
[-]-- 8th of 7, Apr 29 2011 Eugenics starts at home. No one should have kids before reaching the age of 90 or so, to make sure you don't carry any familial increased risk of colon cancer or Parkinson's. Y'all gonna get tested for ApoE-E4, and if it's positive, you're gonna adopt, right?-- mouseposture, Apr 30 2011 What [0.875] said.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 30 2011 [MaxwellBuchanan] Are you agreeing with the inverse of [8th_of_7]?-- mouseposture, Apr 30 2011 The whole of seven is seven itself. Half of seven is three and a half. Third of seven is two and one third. ... Eighth of seven would then be what that Max guy said.-- neelandan, Apr 30 2011 No, he's just treating [8th] as being cardinal and a fraction vulgar, rather than ordinal and a tad paradoxical.
I think it's the day-glo beretta that does it.-- pertinax, Apr 30 2011 //Subsonic// means slower than the speed of sound, and is redundant in the title, as you can't use airborne sound to warn someone in front of a transonic or supersonic train.
The noun for sound at a frequency below human hearing is infrasound; the adjective is infrasonic. There is no easy way to direct infrasound from the front of a train. The emitter and the width of the beam would have to be much greater than the wavelength of the sound, and infrasound implies wavelengths longer than 10m or so.-- spidermother, Apr 30 2011 //what that Max guy said// No, that would be [1.1428571428571428] I think he's agreeing with the inverse of what [8th_of_7] said. Which would make [MB] correct, in my view.
There is no longer any possibility of [MB] enlightening us directly, or through a prophet. We're left in the position of Talmudic commentators, arguing about what He meant.
(//There is no easy way to direct infrasound// see first anno.)-- mouseposture, Apr 30 2011 // [MB] enlightening us directly, or through a prophet. //
We concur, since extensive research has shown that MaxCo is nothing more than a Post Office box registered as a non-prophet making organisation, located on board a Liberty ship moored off Guernsey, flying the ensign of the Lichtenstein Navy but registered as a charitable orphanage in Liberia, yet claiming to be one of the" outlying" Cayman Islamds.
When we asked to speak to "The person in charge", the group of heavily armed men aboard informed us that they knew nothing of such a person, but had merely been paid in cash" by some bloke they mey down the pub" to do some painting and tidying up.
Since part of this" tidying up" involved noisily loading the ready- use clips into a dual 40mm AA cannon and training it in our general direction, we decided not to enquire further or intrude on their time.-- 8th of 7, Apr 30 2011 We are now regretting our purchase of upgraded deflector shields, although the finance terms were very attractive, the glossy brochures very credible, and the young lady salesperson from MaxCo was very … convincing …-- 8th of 7, Apr 30 2011 I was, indeed, agreeing with [8th of 7], and an eighth of seven is indeed [0.875].
Regarding the deflector shields, it appears that you may have neglected to turn them on. The "on" switch can be found underneath the large illuminated sign which says "ON". It's a sort of code we use.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 01 2011 //an eighth of seven is indeed [0.875]// [MB] haven't you heard about the death of the author?-- mouseposture, May 02 2011 random, halfbakery