Can You Hear This Falling Tower? [VIDEO]
(WWJ) If a gigantic electrical tower fell and no one was around to see it, would it still make a sound?
It's a question for the ages -- and the Internet.
Dr Lisa DeBruine from the Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology at the University of Glasgow posted the video -- that had been popularized on sites including reddit and tumblr -- on Twitter, asking her followers to describe whether they experienced "any auditory sensations" while watching it.
The good doctor received 245,000 responses.
Does anyone in visual perception know why you can hear this gif? pic.twitter.com/mcT22Lzfkp
— Lisa DeBruine ????️???? (@LisaDeBruine) December 2, 2017
And 70 percent of respondents said they heard a thudding sound.
But the video is silent.
No one really knows why so many people believe they hear a sound, except that it's a brain response to anticipation of sound.
The thump is almost entirely in the shake, if you crop out the pylons themselves you can still hear it. They just give it height. pic.twitter.com/3LZK1g24yZ
— HappyToast ★ (@IamHappyToast) December 4, 2017
The guy who shot the video believes the sound people imagine they hear is based on the shake in the video.