Boo! What Noises Scare You?

What noises bother you the most?

The sound of a large explosion after you just flipped the power or control switch during project site commissioning.

You have more nerve than I. I get spooked by anything going "BANG!" when I plug something in or turn it on.

It is also very scary to have everything go silent under the same circumstance - as in total power failure. This happened to me once when I was diagnosing a 480V 3 ph. 60 hp. motor control. The entire plant shut down when my helper (the company president!) hit the start button. We stared at each other white-faced, "What did we do!?," until one of the workers told us that a powerful gust of wind had ripped the roof off a shed and sliced it through the power line at that exact instant, so it wasn't our fault.

I've never heard the sound personally, but I've been told that one of the most disturbing sounds to humans is the sound of a crying baby, being played backwards.

I don't care for the sound of a baby crying normally, so I never did any further exploration.

Of course, the voices in my head are pretty scary too...

Mine was the voices of two incompetent managers calling me to their offices to chew me out over something that was either their fault, something neither understood, or when they had mistaken me for someone else.

Fortunately for me an 8 page report sent to their superiors just before I walked out the door and never came back put an end to that noise issue for me and everyone else who was still there.

I always dread the words, "We interrupt this program for a special report."

I've somewhat eliminated the impact of those words by watching less TV, and mostly what I watch is on the science and d-i-y channels. As the song said, "I get all the news I need from the weather report" and the internet.

One noise that bothers me: Loud paint-peeling bass from megawatt car sound systems. Why? Because it wakes me up at 1:00 AM on a weeknight. How can I reduce or eliminate the impact? I don't know, I would have to have control over where my tax money goes, to prevent it from funding the megawatt car sound system.

"Do these pants make my butt look fat?"

... and the other one: "We need to talk."

The sound of a 1000 psi rupture disk rupturing 20 ft above your head.

A muffled explosion heard from the office turned out to be the main centrifuge igniting and blowing out the sight glass while one of the operators was looking into it with a flashlight. He lost sight in one eye.

The sounds emanating from the mouths of politicians.

This is no joke. There are noise phobias and they are very debilitating.

I can shoot a gun. I can not be within 100 yards of someone else shooting a gun if I don't know when it is going to fire. This really perplexed my Dad. I could not go hunting with him. Fortunately, the army never drafted me. I can not open a can of biscuits. (you peel the paper off and at some point they pop open) I can not inflate a tubeless tire (bike) on a tubeless rim, because at some unknown time the tire pops into the set position in the rim with a loud bang. I give it to my wife and leave the house until she has it set. I refused to work one day when the metal punch was running right beside a skid I had to wire. Walked right out of the building - could not stand to be there.

Love drag racing, and that sound is like music to my ears. Nitro cars - great. But, never ever set a fire cracker off beside me. I'll be gone.

My Pumps

Somebody PLEASE -- make it stop!

Looks like somebody did.

The ex-wifes voice.

How about everyone's ex-wife! They all scare me

How about ex-mother-n-laws voices? Just typing it gave me shivers down my spine.

Yoko Ono?

My wife asking me what I have planned for this evening/day. This is a sure clue that she has something else in mind for me to do. If I'm just sitting there at the time, I tell her I am going over the equations for a new Star Trek transporter design in my mind. That seems to hold her - for about a half an hour.

A pump action shotgun pumping in a cartridge, at least if it's not in my hands at the time.

The rattle of a rattlesnake that I can't see.

From my duty station on the flight deck forward, I often wondered how loud the large array of speakers mounted on the superstructure would be. They looked like the cells of a giant hornets nest. One day someone ventured out on a catwalk that was not supposed to be there. Just the "pop" of the mic being keyed was enough to buckle my knees, the voice saying "get off the catwalk" cut through the sound of any planes running at that moment. It was VERY loud!

The sound of 2 cars crashing together (after a recent accident). The sound of silverware scraping across a plate. And of course the sound of a fire alarm (it usually hurts my sensitive ears).

And then there is the sound you can't hear...The Air force conducted tests with ultra low frequency sound and found that certain frequency's can cause a person to loose control of their bowels. This can happen when HVAC ducting is not designed properly.

Don't touch that thermostaaaa...

ANTI-PERSONEL MINE going off!

Signed,

CaptMoosie

(former US Army Combat Engineer)

When I hear someone say ''It's almost April 15th'',I get very scared! Or when i hear my stomach start to rumble right after i ate something that was past the experation date.Cause i know whats coming next!!!!

The long, low whistle from the mechanic from below my car.

hiii.......

when i will start my car and it will not start because of some problem@@@@

the cranking sound of my car's engine scares me a lot!!!

BOOZE!!!

When you look up from start/not start to see the window of car filled with the front coupler of locomotive in motion! hiiii....DINGDINGDINGBOOOOM!

That doppler sound a big spindle moulder/ four cutter at speed makes JUST before it throws the cutters out of the block, you never know which way they are going to go.. I have heard it on a couple of occasions .. the first time the coddie shouted "hit the deck" and the thick ones stood there (Darwin Principal).. it went through the workshop out through the doors (closed) across the street and through the Oak Door of the offices and stopped in a riser of the staircase, second time I was on the floor when the free cutter hit the overhead router close by shattered and injured four..and don't tell me the covers should have stopped it..they dont...I love working with wood..