The Science of Sound
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2011
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Robin Ince and Brian Cox head north for the second time this series, and take residence for one episode in the BBC Philharmonic's headquarters to talk about the science of sound. They are joined by the University of Salford's acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox, neuroscientist Professor Chris Plack and comedian and former acoustics student Tom Wrigglesworth to talk about all things noise related. With some musical accompaniment, they'll be discussing why some sounds sound nice and some sound horrible. Why certain sounds are noise and others are literally music to our ears, and whether specific sounds can trigger specific emotions. But perhaps the biggest question of all is, are there any clues in the chord sequences to D:Ream's hit "Things can only get better" that made it the perfect soundscape for to a political leadership campaign?..maybe that's something that even science can't answer!
Producer: Alexandra Feachem Presenters: Robin Ince and Brian Cox.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a download from the BBC. |
| 0:02.0 | To find out more, visit bbc.co.uk slash radio4. |
| 0:07.0 | Hello, this is the Infinite Monkey Cage, and he is Brian Cox. |
| 0:11.0 | His favourite law is the second law of thermodynamics. |
| 0:14.0 | I would go so far as to say that it makes him hot, |
| 0:17.0 | but clearly it doesn't, or at least not for very long. |
| 0:21.0 | And he's rubbing in, and his favourite law was hookslaw |
| 0:24.0 | until he found out it only applies below the elastic limit. |
| 0:27.0 | Why only below the elastic limit? |
| 0:29.0 | Yet again, Wikipedia with its information ruins my life. |
| 0:34.0 | Today we are looking at the physics of sound. |
| 0:37.0 | As we're discussing sound, we've come to the home of the BBC Philharmonic here in Sulford. |
| 0:42.0 | Sadly, though. |
| 0:45.0 | We couldn't afford the whole BBC Philharmonic because I frited the entire BBC science budget |
| 0:52.0 | away on volcano-resistant shoes and Gore-Tex. |
| 0:57.0 | Only you hadn't used the helicopter to get here. |
| 1:00.0 | I was so looking forward to having a violinist. |
| 1:03.0 | So we had a wit round, and we got just one. |
| 1:07.0 | So please welcome this week's special guest, violinist Julian Gregory. |
| 1:17.0 | For regular listeners who might not know we always have a regular violinist |
| 1:20.0 | because they haven't had it, we do always have a regular violinist, |
| 1:22.0 | but they normally get cut out from being rubbish. |
... |
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