Baffled!

[sonofzelda]

Has anyone noticed that if you stand at the end of a long straight then you can't hear the approaching cars till they get really close. If, however, you're standing (or sitting) off to the side you can hear the cars from much further away. My friend tells me that the cars are fitted with a special baffle under the bonnet which is designed to deflect the sound sideways in order to protect the hearing of the drivers in front. My friend has been known to be wrong in the past but should I trust him on this one?

[CharlieJ]

Can't say I've noticed myself - I'll try wearing an anorak for the next meeting I go to!

Seriously.... If it does happen it'll be to do with the doppler effect, which I'm sure we all know about. The sound waves are most compressed, producing the highest pitch, directly in front of the car. The human ear is generally less senstive to higher pitched sounds, so it's quite possible that someone standing to the side will hear the slightly lower pitched sound there before someone directly in front of the car will hear the highest pitched sound.

That's the theory anyway.

Keep 'em coming SoZ. :)

[Rusty]

He may sound like a barmy eccentric maniac (sorry no offence intended) but i had a good chat with SOZ at the rock last week hes just eccentric not barmy or a maniac at all just a loyal fan with a great sense of humour nice one SOZ..
hope to see you again mate...

[CharlieJ]

He may sound like a barmy eccentric maniac (sorry no offence intended) but i had a good chat with SOZ at the rock last week hes just eccentric not barmy or a maniac at all just a loyal fan with a great sense of humour nice one SOZ..
hope to see you again mate...
You're right - he does sound like a barmy eccentric maniac - that's why I always like his posts! :D

Hope to bump into you both sometime - maybe at the Rock?

[sonofzelda]

I think you're confusing this with the red-shift which is when distant galaxies appear to swing to the left when moving away from from us and the blue-shift when they appear to swing to the right when moving towards us (but none are). Thanks to both of you for your kind comments (if only the mods could be so forgiving).

[sonofzelda]

Rusty
I was worried about how I'd fit my moniker on the back of a tee-shirt but your burst of TLA inspiration has solved that problem.
SOZ