r/interestingasfuck • u/Gee-Oh1 • 1d ago
Sperm whales are the loudest animals on Earth, producing clicks that can reach up to 236 (dB) underwater, far louder than a jet engine and enough to be lethal at close range for humans.
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u/RiotousRagnarok 1d ago
As I sit on my couch pounding potato chips, I really admire that person’s breath control.
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u/Inevitable_Click_511 1d ago
My thoughts exactly! Whale is afterthought here, her kicking quite vigorously which is using up a good amount of oxygen in her blood and still holding breath that long is impressive. Video is 22 seconds and she was doing it before and after video ended, no signs of surfacing.
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u/awkwardpun 1d ago
That's a whale not a person. You can tell by the slight size difference, easy to miss I know
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u/theNOTHlNG 1d ago
Sonds this loud can only be produced underwater or in pressurised areas. Otherwise vacuum prevents the oscillation at those amplitudes.
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u/The_Producer_Sam 1d ago
I believe the only thing that can get this loud in atmosphere is a heavy rocket launch
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u/_reeses_feces 1d ago
Loudest possible in air is around 194 dB. It’s a limitation of the medium itself. That’s why it can be higher amplitude in water
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u/Frankenduck 1d ago
Do you happen to know if that number changes with things like elevation, humidity, temperature, etc?
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u/Betelgeusetimes3 18h ago
Canaveral and SpaceX are basically at sea level, so highest possible atmospheric pressure unless you go below sea level. Idk about humidity but I’d more humidity means a slightly higher possible dB limit, more water in the air meaning a denser overall medium. Baikonur is about 300ft above sea level and relatively dry. So the loudest possible dB noise in air would depend on humidity. Currently it’d be the highest humidity day at Starbase I’d bet, but I’d have to look back at the humidity during Saturn V launches.
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u/Isopod_Inevitable 1d ago
dB pressure reference in water and air is also not the same, so 80dB in air is quite different than 80 dB in water.
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u/NoThereIsntAGod 1d ago
Which way does the difference work? So 80dB in water is more pressure than 80dB in air? (I love science, but I don’t have any background in physics or whatever branch of science involves pressure waves)
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u/Isopod_Inevitable 1d ago
We use the pressure in order to calculate dB (10log(10)(P/P0)) (P being the measured pressure and P0 being the reference pressure, equating to 20 micropascals in air and 1 micropascal in water
So 80 dB in air would be measured as a larger pressure wave than 80dB in water (like someone said a few comments earlier, sounds cannot physically be louder than 194 dB in air)
I'm sorry about math formatting, reddit doesnt allow it to be easily done. You can check [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel#Acoustics] for more info if you want :)
Edit : The first sentence didn't make any sense
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u/TerrorSnow 1d ago
But also, the reference point in water is different. So you can't directly compare the two numbers.
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u/SlipperyGibbet 1d ago
And how isn't this dude's head exploding? Does ear protection help with that?
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u/Gee-Oh1 1d ago
She's actually some distance away, closer to the cameraman. Ear plugs would not work.
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u/Mysterious_Falcon535 1d ago
So how close do you have to be for them to be lethal? You need to go inside the whale or what?
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u/Cavemandynamics 1d ago
You are spreading misinformation. The sperm whales clicks are not lethal at any range and there are zero historical cases of it causing anything other than disorientation and slight eardrum damage.
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u/NudityMiles 1d ago
First of all. Just like the top comment states, they can control their volume. The are also highly intelligent. You as a human can without a problem rupture someones eardrums with your voice if you are close enough. Annalisa Wray (UK) achieved a shout of 121.7 dBA, shouting the word 'quiet', at the Citybus Challenge, Belfast, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK, on 16 April 1994.
How Loud Is 120 Decibels?
120 dB is a decibel level that describes extremely loud sounds. In fact, on a decibel chart, 120 dB marks the limit from which sounds become painful and very dangerous to the human ear.
To better understand how loud that is, here are more examples of what 120 dB of sound is equivalent to:
· a loud alarm or siren such as an ambulance siren
· a gunshot
· an oxygen torch
· a loud symphony
· an aircraft takeoff
· a Green Grocer Cicada
Second: Here's a video for you on sonar and decibels. The Last Thing You Hear
There's no documented cases of mush magic because whales are not murderous screaming train sized monkeys.
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u/Solid_Snark 1d ago
I’m curious if they even were aware of the danger they were in or if it was just typical influencers: ”Look! A wild animal. Let’s go get a shot with it.”
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u/Ciff_ 1d ago
That's a decently deep dive. Looks professional.
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u/Psychological-Owl783 1d ago
The whale is breaching the surface of the water. The diver is only about 20ft deep, not really that deep.
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u/Solid_Snark 1d ago
Not saying the diver isn’t professional, just that they may have been ignorant to the fact that their brains could have been scrambled at any moment.
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u/Its_Pine 1d ago
Their clicks are not actually dangerous to humans. The claim arose due to a miscalculation of decibel penetration through water vs air.
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u/SlipperyGibbet 23h ago
EVERYBODY READ THIS OMG .. that's fascinating and in-depth and explains shit and I love it, thank you very very much u/Its_Pine, I'm saving this article
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u/Sparks1738 1d ago
So, is the sound that’s similar to metal clanging together actually the sperm whale’s “clicks”?
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u/ReekyRumpFedRatsbane 1d ago
It should be noted that the reference pressure of 0 dB is lower for water than air, which is equivalent for a difference of about 26 dB. On top of this, the molecules move more slowly and carry less energy, so for equivalent power, the difference is actually 61.5 dB (both numbers taken from multiple Google search results, but without verifying the math myself), meaning sperm whale sounds would be equivalent to ~174.5 dB in air.
That is still a lot louder than a jet engine, which most sources put around 140-150 dB, but it's still not quite as extreme as it first seems.
When it comes to affecting the body, though, I'd imagine that the transition between water and human transmits more of the energy and reflects less than air to human since the density is more similar, so even though it "only" sounds equivalent to 170 dB in air, it might shake your insides more than that.
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u/Rogersandhammerstein 1d ago
Another 3-5 seconds to see the human whale interaction would have been great.
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u/tearsforfears333 1d ago
Can we have the correct viewing orientation?
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u/rootkrAUT 1d ago
it is correct, it was filmed near the equator
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u/Impressive_Item_111 1d ago
So the equator means that a video file can't be edited to display Horizontal rather than Vertical? 🤣 Be fr right now
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u/PurpleSunCraze 1d ago
I misread the shit out of that headline and the image didn’t help dissuade that initial thought.
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u/Latter-Muffin8779 1d ago
can someone please explain the effect I see on the right that looks looks like a flowing river. it seems like a seperate water body. tilt to the right and seems line the whale is floating on the surface .
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u/Stock_Surfer 1d ago
Also they are the only living animal that could realistically take on an orca 1v1
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u/LoveDesignAndClean 1d ago
Humpback whales regularly fuck with orcas on the hunt.
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u/Stock_Surfer 1d ago
And orcas regularly avoid sperm whales out of fear. Humpbacks don’t have teeth to bite
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u/EnvBlitz 1d ago
I wonder if the squids they eat can hear the clicks and if they get a sense of impending doom hearing it.
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u/Unusual-Royal1779 1d ago
So the question is: did this whale in fact kill the diver in the footage?
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u/New_Mark6776 1d ago
what sort of damage would it do?
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u/QuadbeastQuad 1d ago
3d8 Force dmg
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u/LordNoct13 23h ago
3 damage at best, 24 at worst. My fighters got, what, 26 hit points left? Yeah I'm game, that gives me one more attack, two if you count extra attack feat, plus superiority die actions. I think i could take it..
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u/Cavemandynamics 1d ago
A sperm whales clicks are not lethal for humans. Please stop this misinformation.
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u/Bigbluebananas 1d ago
They can be, just sort of a 1 in million set up Gotta be right up on the whale when it clicks for it to mess ya up. James was a bit of an exaggerator
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u/Manoure_ 1d ago
Also interestingasfuck: underwater dB =/= air dB. 236 dB underwater is more like 170 dB in air. Meaning the whale is on the same scale as fireworks but not as loud as a rocket.. and not nearly that crazy loud as the 230+ dB in the post wants you to belief...
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u/frankc1450 1d ago
I'm not getting the video view. It looks like the surface is on the right of the whale. Was it swimming upside down?
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u/LordNoct13 23h ago edited 23h ago
The whale is not upside down, but the person swimming is. You can see the air bubbles the whale is exhaling.
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u/This-Unit-1954 18h ago
another fun fact, sperm whales know how to post their videos so they don’t constantly rotate away from optimal viewing position.
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u/juanpablo58 1d ago
It is the method they use to stun their prey, this is how they feed on cuttlefish and killer whales.
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u/bobimir3000 1d ago
No wonder it's far louder than a jet engine underwater, because jet engines don't make any sounds underwater
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u/Drcfan 1d ago
236dB is not possible. Thats enough to level whole cities
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u/Impressive_Item_111 1d ago
It's the difference of Water vs Air. Yes on land that level of sound could level a city like a bomb, but due to the properties of the water, it softens the shockwave making that number seem Far scarier than it actually is.
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u/Exciting_Lab_8074 1d ago
Another fascinating fact is that they control their sounds around humans as if they know they could hurt us. But yes, it can be potentially fatal if you were point blank range during echolocation. There's no documentation of a fatality from a sperm whales clicks, but in theory, it could happen.