How many people here are NOT deaf?

1. Can you hear anything under water?
I'm HOH, but I remmy as a teen jumping off the maildock at camp, and being able to hear a motorboat underwater.....wow....had not thought about that in like a thousand years!
 
deafdyke said:
I'm HOH, but I remmy as a teen jumping off the maildock at camp, and being able to hear a motorboat underwater.....wow....had not thought about that in like a thousand years!

Right—sounds are strongly amplified underwater, not muffled. Nancy must be profoundly deaf, with little or no residual hearing. A person with normal hearing in one or both ears can hear a penny being tapped on the opposite side of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. I used to marvel at this when I was a little kid, because I didn’t understand the physics behind it. I knew that other people could hear things no matter which direction their heads were turned, so even when I was a small child I realized that there was something wrong with me, because I could only hear faint noises if the noise were on my left, and I was facing in a direction which was at a 90 degree angle to the source of the noise. So it astonished me that I could hear a faint sound like a penny being tapped no matter where I was in the pool or what direction my head was turned.
 
Nancy said:
Ok, I have a couple of questions:

1. Can you hear anything under water?

2. Can you actually hear a car or a truck coming from a mile away? (a deaf friend who used to be hearing told me she used to can do this! I was amazed!)

3. What was it like to zero in a conversation and block everything out (I've read that people with hearing loss cannot do this - I certainly can't either).

1. Well, it is true, water is a good conductor of sound, but usually only sounds in the water. Although I could hear "a pin drop" from the other side of an olympic size pool, it is hard to hear someone outside the water. It is funny that you ask, because my cousin was amazed that she could understand sign underwater as well as above; I guess it just never occured to her.

2. Sometimes you can hear something a mile away, but it would have to be freaking loud! I think 1/2 mile or 1/4 mile is more accurate, but it depends on the car. The new hybrid cars are so quiet that very few people, if any, hear them, and the hybrid drivers are constantly honking at ppl to get them to move!

3. Focusing in on sounds is partially about what you hear, and partially mental concentration. I know people with C.I.'s have a lot of difficulty with this, and I have heard hearing los as well. It is VERY hard to focus in on a conversation when the room is very loud, or there are many conversations at once, sometimes you physically can't hear the person and can't communicare. Lots of noise for hearing people is the equivalent of a room getting darker for deaf people.
 
Assassin and Ethereal, Deafscuba was tongue-in-cheeking cuz we have met loads of hearing people in our lifetimes who ask those very same questions of us and a lot of even dumber ones!
 
Nancy said:
1. Can you hear anything under water?
I can't really hear anything under water, but I can hear things at the surface of the water. If my ears are less than an inch above the surface of the water and the water is smooth, I can hear.
Nancy said:
2. Can you actually hear a car or a truck coming from a mile away? (a deaf friend who used to be hearing told me she used to can do this! I was amazed!)
Yes, I can. It usually depends on the car and how fast it's going. Basically, a moving object that makes sounds is actually pushing its own sound further and faster ahead of itself. In that case, you can hear a helicopter approaching from far away and very loudly. As soon as it passes you, the sound quickly reduces because there's nothing pushing the sound towards you any more. ;)
Nancy said:
3. What was it like to zero in a conversation and block everything out (I've read that people with hearing loss cannot do this - I certainly can't either).
Zeroing on a specific sound is a skill that one has to develop. When you can't hear anything, you can't develop this skill. When you're wearing hearing aids, it's difficult to do this since the hearing aid actually amplifies all sounds around you.
 
ScrappyKat said:
sadly i am hearing...
Sadly?
hsugh.gif
 
Well you have no idear how many of my hearing friends have told me that they wish they could turn sounds off, like I am notorious for doing! Trust me....hearing is SO OVERRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
ScrappyKat said:
sadly i am hearing...

Take LOTS of vicodin, go to a heavy metal show at least once a week, and take up trap shooting as a hobby. (If anybody asks you why you’re not wearing ear protection, just say "ear protection is for sissies"). :mrgreen:


Sorry, I just couldn't resist... :giggle:
 
VamPyroX said:
.....Yes, I can. It usually depends on the car and how fast it's going. Basically, a moving object that makes sounds is actually pushing its own sound further and faster ahead of itself. In that case, you can hear a helicopter approaching from far away and very loudly. As soon as it passes you, the sound quickly reduces because there's nothing pushing the sound towards you any more. ;)......
The speed of sound is a constant. You can vary the volume, or even focus the direction, but you cannot push it faster or slow it down, except by varying the temperature and density of the gas it is traveling through. If we consider the atmosphere on a standard day at sea level static conditions, the speed of sound is about 761 mph, or 1100 feet/second. We can use this knowledge to approximately determine how far away a lightning strike has occurred.
 
Levonian said:
Take LOTS of vicodin, go to a heavy metal show at least once a week, and take up trap shooting as a hobby. (If anybody asks you why you’re not wearing ear protection, just say "ear protection is for sissies"). :mrgreen:


Sorry, I just couldn't resist... :giggle:

OOH YEAH! :rofl:

DEAFDYKE: YOU ARE MY HERO!! IT IS SOOOOOOO OVERRATED!!
 
Tousi said:
Assassin and Ethereal, Deafscuba was tongue-in-cheeking cuz we have met loads of hearing people in our lifetimes who ask those very same questions of us and a lot of even dumber ones!
u got that right there tousi. ;)
 
I'm hearing, though I have some upper-register loss due to exposure to heavy machinery. Gotta agree with some of the folks here (at least some of the time) - hearing is a bit over-rated. Funny; I used to be aurally-oriented; love music, my first husband was a musician. As I've become older, I've become more involved/attracted to visual mediums.
 
well said

deafdyke said:
Well you have no idear how many of my hearing friends have told me that they wish they could turn sounds off, like I am notorious for doing! Trust me....hearing is SO OVERRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it is overated. I never considered my hearing loss a problem. I thought of it as a GIFT. Like when I'm around my In-Laws. :laugh2:
 
Well, as a hearing person, there are certainly times when I wish I could "turn off" my hearing for a while. Like when my hubby is snoring away in bed, or when the baby cries and whines during and car trip and you can't very well stop to cuddle him every 5 minutes like he wants. Or when you're traveling with someone who insists on blaring music that you hate.
 
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