Temperature refraction makes distant concertgoers hear more noise than nearby ones

Evidence

This behavior is often responsible for the pop concert effect in which people living some distance away from the concert experience noise disturbance, whereas people living nearer the concert do not experience the same level of noise. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 338

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Directly relevant to this book’s reader’s purpose of illuminating lived listening — and connects to One Square Inch of Silence’s noise complaints material.
• SEED: The ‘pop concert effect’ is a vivid everyday example of how sound’s behavior defies intuition — good opening anecdote for a piece on acoustic perception.

Related

• Reflections from a nearby hard wall can double the sound amplitude toward the listener (similarity 0.82)
• Temperature inversion layers refract sound away and create silent zones (similarity 0.82)
• Refraction, unlike wall diffraction, can create near-total acoustic silent zones. (similarity 0.81)
• High-frequency loss with distance provides a perceptual cue for judging sound source distance (similarity 0.81)
• Sitting close to a rear wall creates early strong reflections that corrupt perceived sound (similarity 0.81)
• Distance makes sound quieter and duller as air absorbs high frequencies (similarity 0.80)
• Sound bends like light because temperature changes its speed. (similarity 0.80)
• Sound from one explosion skipped over near regions and reached far ones (similarity 0.80)
• A small listening room’s first reflections mask the recorded acoustic space (similarity 0.80)
• Sound refracts toward slower-speed regions over long outdoor distances (similarity 0.80)
• Atmospheric physics creates striking asymmetries in how sound travels (similarity 0.80)
• Sitting near walls creates frequency notches from delayed reflections (similarity 0.80)
• Perceived loudness falls off with distance more slowly than physical intensity does (similarity 0.80)
• Real-room reflections are attenuated and delayed, not equal-level and immediate. (similarity 0.79)
• Reflected sound waves interfere with direct waves to create frequency peaks and dips (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Atmospheric physics creates striking asymmetries in how sound travels #expands (0.85) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 32
• Temperature inversion layers refract sound away and create silent zones #expands (0.82) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2596