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Duck's Quacks Really Do Echo

Posted by Hemos on from the what-about-nintendo's-duck-hunt dept.

troc writes "Finally that age-old myth of the duck's quack has been overturned. It has long been thought that the duck's quack did not produce an echo, so some boffins with spare time and a duck did some experiments. "

16 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. But... by Bluesman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Do they weigh the same as a witch?

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  2. WHO thought this? by wowbagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This sounds like a load to me.

    Sound echos. All sound. A duck's quack is sound. Therefor, a duck's quack will echo. QED.

    What magical properties would cause a duck's quack not to reflect off a flat surface, or to magically cancel itself out?

    This sounds much like the "If you exceed 60 MPH, you will explode" myth that was commonplace back before trains exceeded 60 MPH - the blitherings of people who don't know what they are talking about - much like someplace else we all know of.

    Point me to one physicist who would published any public work saying "A duck's quack won't echo." Just one.

    What next - somebody trying to evaluate the efficacy of NaCl in trapping avians when applied to their aft flight surfaces?

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    1. Re:WHO thought this? by KDan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Apparently it's just due to the fact that the duck's quack's echo is a lot harder to hear - hence some sort of popular rumour must have sprung up saying that it actually doesn't echo. The study confirmed that it's hard to hear and that it does nevertheless echo (which is blatantly obvious for anyone with some sense, of course).

      Overall, a thorough waste of time and money, this study...

      Daniel

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    2. Re:WHO thought this? by tzanger · · Score: 2, Funny

      What next - somebody trying to evaluate the efficacy of NaCl in trapping avians when applied to their aft flight surfaces?

      Don't be absurd -- everyone knows that you colour the edges of their beaks with a green marker to improve their sound.

    3. Re:WHO thought this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, there could have been, and still might be, some sort of human perceptual quirk that prevents us from hearing the echo of a duck's quack. Just like there are optical illusions, there can be auditory illusions as well.

    4. Re:WHO thought this? by redtail1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The scientist who worked on this problem was interviewed on the BBC this morning. He admitted the result was obvious but it generated a lot of interest in science which was a good thing given that most people's education in science stops at age 16.

    5. Re:WHO thought this? by iggymanz · · Score: 3, Funny

      What next - somebody trying to evaluate the efficacy of NaCl in trapping avians when applied to their aft flight surfaces?

      To test the efficacy of salting a bird's wings in order to trap it, I put a 25 lbs. bag of Morton Salt on the wings of a sparrow, a duck, and then a canary. The birds were in each case successfully trapped. Also, they were completely flattened. Interestingly, the muted quack the duck made did not echo.

  3. Duck Dodgers by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny

    The original "no-echo" conclusions came about because the test subject was Daffy, and the location was space.

    In space, no one can hear you quack, let alone hear an echo.

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  4. Peter Rees of Mythbusters already did it. by You're+All+Wrong · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://groups.google.com/groups?q=duck+quack+group :alt.folklore.*+author:rees&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sel m=6b6b4da6.0308281728.3653b272%40posting.google.co m&rnum=1

    Summary:
    a duck's echo sounds very much like the original quack (distribution of frequencies), and thus is hard to distinguish from the original sound. Also ducks' typical environments (plants, absorbing most sound) means that the echo is quiet. Therefore it's very hard to actually hear a distinct echo from a duck in its natural environment.

    You can _contrive_ a sitution where you can hear the echo trivially, though.

    YAW.

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  5. Old news by Alereon · · Score: 4, Informative

    This Urban Legend was definitively put to rest in 1998.

  6. Next up by Hard_Code · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can swallows really carry coconuts?

    I can't wait until those hard-nosed Brits get down to cracking this serious mystery!

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  7. IGnobel! by Outland+Traveller · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Someone needs to nominate these guys to the IGnobel prize team :)

  8. Two scientists and a duck... by Spudley · · Score: 4, Funny

    First scientist: "Say, Bob, I've got a bit of free time, so I'm going up the mountain with my duck. You wanna join me?"

    Is it just me, or does that sound like it came straight out of a Farside comic? :-D

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  9. A more detailed version of the article... by mforbes · · Score: 5, Informative

    is available on the BBC's news site. Apparently the article on Ananova was edited a little too completely for space, and lost the explanation of the reason for the study.

    The full article makes clear that Prof. Cox's work is used in the design of facilities like concert halls, train stations, etc. In other words, the duck was incidental. What he was concerned with was the qualities that reduced the echo.

    Suggesting his work deserves an IgNoble (as someone earlier in the thread offered) begs comparisons to Sen. Proxmire. Try to be a little better informed before you criticize so broadly.

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  10. Duck Stories echo too? by G4from128k · · Score: 2, Funny

    RedWolves2 wrote: "This story "broke" in late July. I had a discussion about it here."

    I guess everything involving ducks will echo.

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  11. Here's how the duck had us fooled all this time... by Insightfill · · Score: 2, Funny
    You see, the duck has a sense of humor. He was actually only quacking once, then opening his mouth in time to the echo(s) - a "bill-sync", if you will, of his own echo.

    Of course, people saw this duck "quacking" twice in a canyon years ago and then failed to hear the echo, and thought it was magic or something.

    Sort of like the bird in the "Monty Python" Beethoven sketch with John Cleese, where the bird was just opening and closing his beak to taunt the poor Beethoven.

    Some of the smarter ducks had even mastered the "repeat and fade" trick that the goose never really figured out.