Why do nails on a blackboard

Hygge Danish - This is the pleasant, intimate feeling associated with sitting around a fire in the winter with close friends. Tartle Scots - That panicky hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can't quite remember. Mamihlapinatapai Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego - That special look shared between two people, when both are wishing that the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do. Iktsuarpok Inuit - That feeling of anticipation when you're waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they're there yet.

Greng-jai Thai - That feeling you get when you don't want someone to do something for you because it would be a pain for them. Gigil Filipino - The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is irresistibly cute. They told half of the listeners the true source of the sounds, and the other half that the sounds came from pieces of contemporary music. Finally, they played back the new sounds for the participants, while monitoring certain indicators of stress, such as heart rate, blood pressure and the electrical conductivity of skin.

They found that the offensive sounds changed the listeners' skin conductivity significantly, showing that they really do cause a measureable, physical stress reaction.

The most painful frequencies were not the highest or lowest, but instead those that were between 2, and 4, Hertz. The human ear is most sensitive to sounds that fall in this frequency range, said study researcher Michael Oehler, a professor of media and music management at Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Oehler pointed out that the shape of the human ear canal may have evolved to amplify frequencies that are important for communication and survival.

Thus, a painfully amplified chalkboard screech is just an unfortunate side effect of this mostly beneficial development. Listeners in the study, Oehler said, rated a sound as more pleasant if they thought it was pulled from a musical composition. Though this didn't fool their bodies, as participants in both study groups expressed the same changes in skin conductivity. The implication, then, is that chalkboard screeches may not irk people so much if they didn't already think the sound was incredibly annoying.

A sucker for being lost in strange places, she recently wandered her way through Costa Rica, Portugal, Tokyo and Bonaire and is excited to take her wandering to the epicenter of strange places, New York City. If you take the proper time to craft some superb Facebook posts, then obtain the expressed word out simply by passing it during your Twitter stream. What about the thought of the feeling beneath your nails associated with the sound?

I have the same feeling thinking about pulling cotton out of a pill bottle. Your email address will not be published. Previous Search. Ever Wondered? Why do we hate the sound of nails on a chalkboard? Does even looking at this picture make you shiver? Related Posts. Farmsteads and creameries in southern states are experimenting. Republicans and Democrats have both made appearances in Glasgow for the giant climate conference.

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