or A Duck's Quack doesn't echo and no one knows why?
or Does it?
I was brainstorming with Miss Landers for a topic for the Q post and she suggested the Q is for Quack theme. She said I could talk about why a duck's quack doesn't echo--something about the reverberation chamber in a duck's head. Wow. That was interesting and something I had never heard of. I had a topic, "Why does a duck's quack not echo?" Now for a little research.
It turns out that I was not able to figure out why a duck's quack doesn't echo because it can under the right circumstances. An acoustics professor from University of Salford in England did the most quoted study proving that the quack statement was indeed quackery. Snopes reported on the falsehood in 1999 and MythBusters did a experiment in 2003 that busted the myth.
Now the interesting part is no one is quite sure where the myth came from or why it was proposed. But it has certainly propagated over the years. There was even a British game show on from 2014-2017 with that name. Have you heard about the echo-less quack before? Did you think it was true? If you did, did you have an explanation for it?
Another day of Live and Learn for me.
I have never heard of that myth. It's interesting to think of how myths and tall tales got started!
ReplyDeleteSo I'm not the only one who hadn't heard of this. Maybe both you and I need to get out more. :)
DeleteAdd me to the list of people who need to get out more, because I've never heard of that myth, either!
ReplyDeleteMaybe we're all spending too much time with blogs. :)
DeleteI'd never heard that myth. I would think any sound could echo given the right acoustic environment for the sound waves emitted.
ReplyDelete