What Actually Is White Noise? | Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains…
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
- What is the science behind white noise? On this explainer, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice break down frequencies and what defines white noise.
What makes white noise? We explore high energy versus low energy sound and the frequencies that contribute to white noise. Do kids these days even know anything about TV static? We go back to the days of TV antenna and back even farther to the age of Isaac Newton. When did we first start to figure out frequency and the electromagnetic spectrum? Where did we get ROYGBIV from? What is black noise? Finally, how are white light and white noise related?
Get the NEW Cosmic Queries book (5/5 ⭐s on Amazon!): amzn.to/3dYIEQF
Support us on Patreon: / startalkradio
FOLLOW or SUBSCRIBE to StarTalk:
Twitter: / startalkradio
Facebook: / startalk
Instagram: / startalk
About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
#StarTalk #neildegrassetyson
0:00 - Introduction
1:29 - White Noise
2:24 - Television Static
3:51 - Isaac Newton’s Light Experiment
6:29 - White Light
7:30 - Equal Frequencies
10:50 - Closing Notes - Наука та технологія
Do you remember television static?
I still have the little Sharp CRT TV that i got when i was 13 or 14, and i'm 38 now, haha
I think it should be called "equan noise" derived from equan(imity)
Edit: it's up to you Neil! If you can have the scientific community acquiesce to Pluto's planetary status revocation. Then you can change the name in the game of a type of noise's wack name! XD (not really wack, just had a rhyme there. And, as a lyricist I couldn't let it slide lol)
Oh yes. Calming it was.
Right after the anthem and the tone!😳🤯😅😅
Yes I do
You know that you are a veteran of this program if you knew where Chuck was heading as soon as Neil named the topic. 😃
Andy Griffith 👍
Black noise
I've only watched one video off this channel but I already knew where he was going when I read the title off the thumbnail
Yea he’s pretty obsessed with skin color. Any time Neil says anything about color I know chuck is gonna use the same played out jokes
@@vincevvn yup! It was funny the first few times!
The real genius of this explainers with the combination of Neil and Chuck, is that they have great re-watch value.
The moronic comment about FOX news just shows how much the “ everything is about race” narrative has been so successful
Hard enough to watch Chuc once…. Cringe.
Yeah.. no. It’s almost impossible for me to watch them. They’re just not as funny as they think they are.
@@SkywalkerSamadhi I can see you're one serious Star Wars fanboy.
And yes, they're funny together and they perfectly compliment each other.
@@SkywalkerSamadhi Luke is garbage and his force is weak AF
I absolutely love the chemistry between Chuck and Neil. This was a great informative and educational video!
A good show needs nothing. Just a camera, a mic, a good comedian and a damn good scientist. That’s it.
Long time ago, while in his backyard enjoying a couple beers, this one guy asked me why the grass is green and not some other color.
I had no idea.
He explained: "the natural chemical on the cells of the surface of the grass blades absorbs every spectrum of color from the sunlight, except the green color. It bounces it off, so when we look at it, all we see is the green light coming at us."
I in turn asked him: "Then what is the real color of grass?"
We each drank 2 more beers in total silence.
Word
that was a great conversation
This.
What if your green was actually his red?
This reminds me of a show with to kids talking about how they don't know what a perfect sphere looks like because everything they know of has bumps at a level they can't perceive lol
There has been a study that shows "white noise" can help you fall sleep.
Then, I think you need some "black noise" to wake you up.😁
By the way, it was a great and amusing presentation.
Your videos have helped me reach over $300,000 in trading by age 24! Thanks StarTalk. Keep the videos coming. 👍🏽
Keep up the great work .
I'm convinced that the big investors and analysts are trying to scare us to keep us poor and ignorant to the market..because its steady doing good after all the jobless and market crash talks
Congrats and wishing you the best
@kim sun When I was 21 ,but you need a finance Pro if you don’t want to loose and if you want to be more successful
@kim sun Follow⬇⬇
I love how you two are the perfect mix of funny and educational! 😂🤣
They aren't funny but they are educational.
@@jordandryer116 exactly 💯
There's a variant of "white noise" called "pink noise," which is aptly named (by Neil's description of the origin of the name of white noise" because it partially mutes some of the higher frequencies, which results in it sounding softer and a bit less harsh on the human ear. Red noise is when you completely remove the higher tones leaving only the mid and bass tones, and it creates this really relaxing "wooosh" sound, like waves on a beach.
Also brown (Brownian), blue and voilet
@@damon_aaron Not to be confused with the infamous mythical "brown note."
There is also Black Noise, which is mostly silent, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Noise also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise
I was waiting to see if they would bring this up.
@@AceSpadeThePikachu lmao 🤣
I’ve always wondered if the first people getting color tvs were disappointed that the static was still in black and white..
When I was just a little kid in the 70's, we only had a B&W TV. And every Saturday morning as I watched my cartoons, I would always wonder what they would look like in full color... and finally, many years later, my parents bought a color TV. And I was soooo disappointed when the very first shows I saw were a B&W Bugs Bunny cartoon and a B&W Abbott & Costello movie... I was totally doing a "wait, what...?" 🤣
Why is that? Because the colour-decoding circuitry in the TV needs to pick up a special component in the broadcast signal before it turns on. This is to avoid introducing a certain level of random colour noise into a black-and-white picture (imperfect analog circuits, don’t you know). So in the noise that the receiver picks up in the absence of a signal, there is nothing resembling this colour signal, so the colour decoder remains off.
Hilarious, right out of the gate. Thanks, gentlemen. 😆
TDS
@@JBMoney. it’s not lol it’s actually good we can laugh about things. Chillax ✌️
Glad you enjoyed it!
How dope is the internet
I get to watch a fantastic scientists and great people from everywhere
Right?
I love this channel. Whenever i overthink something going on in my personal life, i turn to this channel and its so fascinating and entertaining it helps me get my focus back
All our problems are small on a cosmic scale...
💯
Ditto
There are actually a variety of noises like pink or brown noise, used by sound engineers.
We always used pink noise for “ringing the room”. As the electrician I could never tell the difference. 🤷
Pink noise is tuned for the human ear. It has higher amplitude on the low frequencies and a slight increase on high frequency. Always used for audio calibration on sound systems.
@@anorcott Pink noise is more similar to what are ears listen to. White noise is equal in the electric domain and pink noise is more equal in the acoustic domain as we perceive it, so it has the opposite curves in frequencies that are ears like to have.
So, I work in live audio, and we use something called pink noise to tune our speakers. It’s white noise, but the high end is attenuated so that you hear all the frequencies equally, since white noise tends to build up toward the higher end of the spectrum. It’s called pink because the light equivalent would be to attenuate the blue light.
He said all that in the video, but he messed up in the pink noise aspect.
Thanks for the info!
Amplitude as a function of frequency (correct me if I’m wrong):
White noise - constant
Pink noise - 1/f
Brown noise - 1/f²
To get the power/energy density as a function of frequency, multiply each of these by f. What your ears hear is the energy, not the amplitude, which is why white noise seems dominated by the higher frequencies. So pink noise has constant energy over the frequency band.
These are all random noise signals, where a sample at any particular time shows no direct dependency on a sample at any other time. In computer graphics, we also like to use “noise” functions which are not really random, but always have the same value at the same point.
For example, Perlin and Musgrave noise functions are handy for producing various interesting textures on materials. A little bit of Perlin colour variation can turn a clean, immaculate-looking object into a dir
White noise is all frequencies with equal energy at each frequency. That causes more energy in higher spectrums because of there being more frequencies closer together as you go up. An ultraviolet catastrophe for sound engineers because of too much energy that high up.
Pink noise is all frequencies but the energy is the same per octave, or logarithmic distribution. So the per frequency energy goes down as the frequencies go up. This is more often what sound engineers use for speaker set up. And there are variations of it.
Computers, digital devices can not generate a true white or pink noise because digital devices can not generate a true random number. (Explainer?) They can run a program that simulates one and resets at some point in time.
This was so cool, I love audio stuff...it’d be cool if you guys did a segment of just audio and acoustic anomalies...even in music making like the Haas effect to help widen sounds in the stereo field with a millisecond delay. Very fun guys!
Also the physics of harmonic series is so interesting
It's very complex and Bose and Dolby etc. have patents on it. It's not about the sounds, it's about understanding human perception of sounds. That's why I dislike much of new music. Using computers and algorithms and autotune etc. take away the feeling. The very slight imperfections and purposely wrong timing to create a feeling, make it human. Ring Starr was a left handed drummer with a right handed kit. He explains why some hits were off. But they were consistently off every time and it was great.
You know if a venue will be good to play if it's full of pigeons. It's got great 🎵acooostics🎵🕊️
Great suggestion!
I support this!
Neil and Chuck for 2024
This is for Chuck. I worked on TV's and video equipment. Getting the colors set equal is called "White Balance" LOL.
Just wanna say I'm having an exceptionally rough day and I've just been binging Star Talk. You guys have such incredible chemistry and are comedy gold. I've been able to laugh today while being entertained and of course while learning incredible things. So thank you for being you and helping me keep moving forward in my tiny little journey and literally keeping me looking up ❤
The second he said white noise is a combination of all noise, I immediately drew the parallels to the rainbow and sunlight assuming the connection. The second. Before he confirmed it. Confidence grows quietly
How is it quiet if you're literally announcing online??? Lmao
Synaesthesiac here.
Ironically enough, to me, white noise sounds sort like like a combination of dark green and black. The higher pitches have a brilliant, bright cyan kind of hue, but still not white.
Not all those with Synaesthesia see the same colours with the same sounds/ tastes, etc. It’s not some fundamental truth we alone can sense.
Still, though, pretty ironic!
I wonder if you see colors of sound frequencies depending on how they effect you emotionally.
Chuck is showing the need to teach science to children. He’s joking of course, but he makes a good point.
You two can be so funny at times, thanks for the entertainment and good casual information!
Damn man, am 24, and I wanna ditch all my social friends and hang with u guys, and talk science all day😋😁
Greetings from Ghana. OH HOW I LOVE seeing the two of you together!!!❤❤❤❤
If white noise is combination of all frequencies, the name based on light, could black noise be pure silence?
As a black hole is the absence of all light?
Love the idea of 2 people teaching what they love. Neil you are adding light to my world. Thank you.
Michael Keaton movie, "White Noise," still gets me
I remember that movie! It's a good one!👍
Informative plus entertaining! Keep it up and stay blessed!
That opening bit was hilarious.
I never thought it's a combination of frequnces. Now the name "White" makes sense. Just like white light, it's all the visible light frequences altogether.
I like how u brought up synesthesia. As someone who has it, white noise always "looked" like tv static to me which is interesting due to growing up with tube televisions and experiencing that classic static. Wonder if my brain just associated the 2 and thats why its represented like that.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Chuck always puts me in a good mood!!
I recently discovered this channel and I'm loving it ! Very good explanations with a touch of humor !
thanks for the newton story, I had no idea even though I've worked a lot with white noise during research into infrasound, but it never occurred to me that the term could be related to light. 😄
You guys make me smile and help me learn awesome stuff.
THANK YOU 🌌
Love your vids, Keep up the good work!!!!
That ending had me in tears.
Dead.
I always thought white noise and static noise were interchangeable. That's what we would call it when TV stopped broadcasting.
Now had these 2 been my science teachers, I would now be the chief director of NASA
Speaking of NASA, then you came back to earth..
Chuck would make you fail.
@@BIDEN.THE.CHILD.GROOMER Possibly. I would have a hard time concentrating-
Laughing too much
Hey Neil, now please go ahead with the second part, explaining the colors of noise: pink, Brownian, blue noise etc., octaves and dB :)
Very cool the Newton guy!
He can pull that trick on a nearly daily occurrence in my book, which is why we all love to tune in and watch EVERY EPISODE!! Lol
I love this show ,
Love, love, love! Solid information with a healthy dose of humor. I love these two together!
5:03. Did all that with logical and granted miss spelled or punctuation errors. But. Damn. First time ever see this. And I call these moments #Rabbitholes. Alice in wonderland. “Space is big.” Douglas. “Don’t Panic”. (HGTG). Arthur. 😏
Thank yall so much for not only enlightening me, but for cheering me up & making me smile. I truly appreciateit so much. Watching these videos help soothe my anxiety and depression. You guys are a awesome duo! Perfect balance of intelligence & humor. Much love! ♡
Excellent explainer as always. Lord Nice, you are amazing dude, love it 🍻 👌🏻
Amazing, extremely funny, and informative.
I'm learning so much thank you
Thanks for the video. An interesting follow-up might be an explainer on how and why lower frequencies travel much further than higher frequencies.
I've been wearing hearing aids for a week, this makes what i'm experiencing make sense!!!
Great suggestion!
Glad u asked. Bk lower noise level sound propagates at a different level in unoccupied space. This does not mean that it is not impacted at point of origin and to the point of #Heard. Now this is based on our understanding of sounds we can measure. Ie. What we know. So, my Theory comes into play. #daLEO theory. The ability 2 measure the propagation of the sound is based on the ability 2 hear and measure said unoccupied zero gravity space at a specific time and place based on the listeners occupied space. 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤔🤔🤔🤔🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️. Does that make sense bk it does 2 me. 3:33 in. Damn it!!! Soo hate you.
U just blew my mind. The rainbow is the molecular visual representation. Of the most basic freaking basic need. Ie oxygen. Also. 4:30 in. And 34:01 in Bill Burr. Red rocks!!
Ps. @BillBurr. I will see you live in #HTX. U may hear me u may not. Depending on u.
PPS. I subscribed and disliked so u will know it was me. Thank you and. Eh. What if I am crazy. At least I am funny. Comedy makes the world worth living. Human effect. Occupied situational decision of choice of occupied space and accumulation of substance effects the molecular break down of particles based on the gravitational pull of the larger mass. Case in point I ask y’all. What is at the core of the earth? Think. Core has a massive magnetic pull. 2 humans. Ie gravity. Now the moon has a pull
And the oceans tides are affected by its pull. Ie time. Now 37:35 in Burr got me “Syndrome.” Lost my point but u get it. Gravity is the interpretation and effect of matter collapsing over a measurable position of occupied space. Example. We as humans move. Ie evolution at it finest. Damn it. 2:04 in am #HTX. And going this. Soo hate you. @JoeRogan.
What an engaging discussion of a surprisingly colorful topic.
Man...yall are awesome and educational, my favorite combination
This is very helpful for producers as well.. who uses white noise to mix songs?
I appreciate you both! Thanks for explainers and humour #startalk
Niel and Chuck I love you both. Always making me laugh and i enjoy being able to learn for free since i don't go to college this is a great way to keep myself some what informed with life i guess :P
Colleges and universities are gatekeepers of knowledge that only those who are privileged enough are able to access with ease. For everyone else comes with a lifetime amount of debt.
Basically what I am saying is. Neil is awesome for making knowledge accessible and easy to understand.
Also, keep being curious. :) Knowledge is power
I love these gentlemen. I learn so much. You all go easy!
I love these guys ! Awesome video and highly informative at so many different levels each in equal amounts
Chuck: i don't like the visual description of an audio phenomenon...
Also Chuck: Yeah, it paints a good picture...
3:02 I remember reading this in the first encyclopedia I ever had.
Hilarious and educational! Thank you both!
I didn't think it could get any better, but this episode boy. This episode had it all. Great Job Chuck. You nailed on this one.
Amazing video thanks for the story Neil and Chuck thanks for.. being here
Really amazing episode. I didn't know the origin of the name of white noise. It is interesting, that a lot of later scientists are paying homage to our boy sir Isaac Newton. I need to say: Chuck, your last joke was so good, that I almost spit my tea on my laptop.
I turned 54 back in June. I remember well when there was NOTHING BUT STATIC on the tv. It happened every night at midnight right after they played the national anthem. I'm a big fan of Dr. Tyson. I just finished his lectures "My favorite Universe" on Audible. The last lecture he goes off again on Hollywood depictions of aliens. Rightfully so. But more than once he brought up "Close Encounters of the third kind" and how did the aliens know the latitude and longitude coordinates for Devils Tower, Wyoming. I'll answer that one as bet I can. The aliens had a lot of human abductees on their spaceship including military men, pilots and sailors. They would have gotten the coordinates from them. That's how I think the aliens would have learned something about how we navigate on Earth. I would love to see Dr. Tyson work with Hollywood on a film where he gets input on what they look like. Keep looking up. Cheers, all. ✌
If there was ever a real scenario like that, all that the aliens would have to do is monitor our radio communications for a while. They would quickly learn how we navigate and much more.
Thanks for your your video make it simple to understand and fun to watch.
Are you feeling good
Thanks for the shoutout to synesthesia! Even tho I don’t have this kind of synesthesia, always good to hear synesthesia talked about!
Never change Chuck and Neil, yal are such a great combo, thank you for all yal do
I LOVE you guys!!!... you make learning so fun! Love the humour x
once again, finding humor in the most sublime. well done, guys!
My husband has a startalk tattoo above sir Isaac newtons crest. The startalk logo has starry night inside the logo because of Neil’s love for the painting
This show is Awesome!
I wish that every generation could begin with our 70's and 80's tech. Once they have experience with that which came before, they can graduate to newer technology. Today's generation simply does not understand nor respect what they do have. Simply because they have no life experience regarding how their tech came to be.
There is a rotary phone a few feet from me for that very purpose. If I could bring back radio transmitted television, I would.
Lastly, I believe no child should ever be given access to the internet until after they have learned how to find a particular book in a physical library.
They should learn to read and comprehend what was read before being introduced to an environment which has become all about not reading what was typed out along with blind judgement/hatred.
Well put. Bravo!
Why start at 70's or 80's tech? Maybe they shouldn't get electricity till they learn to read and write by candle light. Heck maybe candle tech is too advanced and they should start with a whale oil lamp!
And definitely no cars till they can walk 10+ miles in less than 2 hrs and then they can graduate to riding a horse for anything further than 10 miles till they can demonstrate they can feed and water a horse all on their own.
The above is a joke to show how dumb forcing old tech onto someone just so they appreciate new tech is.
@@MrT------5743
A joke... perhaps.
But my statement still stands strong. The young need valuable life experience which they are in no imaginable way receiving from today's immense technology options.
They are not getting such experience because mommy and daddy lied and told their kids they were somehow born special and do not have to make any effort because everything should be handed to them already figured out so that they do not have to worry about learning.
There MIGHT be 3 kids in this entire nation at this moment that can locate a book in an actual library. And that is seriously being as generous as possible here.
Kids think Earth is a plate, aliens built the great pyramids, and that LSD is perfectly safe.
I'll tell you one thing for a definite fact... not one of those kids got ANY of that false information from library books or any state funded school outside of Florida.
Those collections of absolute intentional ignorance came DIRECTLY from the uneducated and inexperienced being allowed unsupervised access to today's technology known as the internet.
They haven't a single clue what science is nor how science can help eliminate non-factual nonsense. They have not earned the right to today's technology for they are SERIOUSLY still on a severe need to know basis. (refer to video)
Hi since I started watching this show I can't stop. Could you guys do a show about the library of babel?
I learn, I laugh. Love you guys. Keep it up
Oddly enough, when it comes to sound (not Light frequencies) white noise is unnatural and is generated from primarily electronic devices. When you listen to nature like the wind or a waterfall etc. it's called pink noise. It has a lower overall frequency but is still equal amplitude per octave as opposed to equal individual frequencies. It's fascinating.
I love the sound of the waves. I live by a huge Lake but I wish I could sleep on the beach in a hammock and just listen
What about rivers, waterfalls and streams in general? Sounds like white noise to me...
@@dejanmarkovic3040 You can record it and put it through a graphic spectrum analyzer and let me know. I'm literally retired right now and can't be bothered. 🙂
You guys are hilarious! Great lecture.
It is super! Thank you very much for the talk!
I come for the knowledge and stay for Chuck
Hello
Hi
Hey there !!
Hi
Hello there
''Comic' host Chuck Nice', now THAT'S funny. 🤣
can't wait for Chuck's Black Noyze to be released lol
Would you guys sto calling it 'ROYGBIV' 'VIBGYOR' is way simple to pronounce. It also fixes their arrangement from high frequency to low frequency.
Great episode as always.
Lots of love.
I've figured out how to change the stars by stopping hurricanes. Don't worry, I've technically already done the hard part and changed the stars. My parents were teachers and for almost 2 decades, they taught their students my constellation. Those kids will teach their kids. So on and so on. See, stars changed. I just need help to make it legit and with the rest. Need to get to Willie Nelson's house ASAP. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, I'm serious. I get 7 things and remember, crazy is a compliment. Will you please help?
Chuck.... loved it
Fun fact: in the audio engineering world, weighted white noise - where the amplitude (energy) of high frequency information is logarithmically attenuated to match the energy of low frequency information is known as "pink noise". It's typically used in calibrating the phase and frequency response of sound systems.
Of course, the additive method of merging the 3 primary colors of RGB light creates the color white - we see this in projectors and variations of light bouncing off of things generally. But there is also the method of combining inks and paints called subtractive in which equal amounts of 3 colors combine to create the color black. The fun part is that if you look at the CIE charts for light, the horseshoe has a trick in it. If you create a line from red through the center point (white), the line ends at Cyan. The line from blue ends at Yellow. The line from green ends at Magenta. It is those three - secondary - colors that combine (if you have extremely perfect inks) to the color black.
Chuck... I'm an old white man and in this woke age, everything else is being taken from us. PLEASE let us just have the noise! 😉
Hahaha Black & White noise...
I love how you get humor and knowledge with Neil and Chuck at the same time. good chemistry 😅
You guys make learning hilarious. Thx!
Why is everyone so sensitive in the comments all of a sudden.
🤷 All I hear is white noise.
Stopped watching this one. Tired of all the race jokes. Find new material Chuck.
NGT is clearly one of the smartest guys on the planet.
I could listen to him talk about any topic all day long. Just so brilliant AND a very chill dude.
Pink noise is incredibly common in audio applications, tbh moreso than white noise in a lot of situations. Pink noise is where all octaves are equal intensity rather than every frequency being equal. There are just so many more high frequencies than low frequencies that with white noise you're primarily hearing high end. Tuning a room with pink noise makes a lot less people hate you.
There are other "color" noises as well, but pink and white are the only ones super commonly used.
I use pink noise to level instruments in beats and songs it's totally helpful
I really wish chuck would leave politics out of the content .
In my humble opinion, blending science with politics, even as a joke, is just not funny anymore. That's one of the ways how you end up with a politicized virus or whatever else might come next.
I love it when Chuck cracks Neil up.
When we would test speaker placement with microphone placement to get the truist natural sound we would use pink noise. Pink noise has more base and is more representative of noise you find in nature. Most people like their music colored with more lows which makes it warmer with more bass.
Can't lie - after 4+ years of watching this show, the racism jokes are starting to get a touch stale to the ear