What is it we hear when we are surrounded by total silence?

Question

I have heard of white noise. Is that what we hear in total silence and if so, what is it composed of?

Answer 1

White noise is normal sound made of waves of compression travelling through air, so if you are in total silence then you aren't hearing any noise, including white noise. You might think that in absence of any external stimulation (any noise around you) you would experience hearing nothing yet with nothing around you still do. The auditory cortex (part of your brain responsible for processing sound information) shows activity under fMRI inspection without any signal coming from the ear.

Another reason you might hear sound when nothing else is around is that your body makes noise (muscles, heart, blood-flow, organ function). Try contracting your jaw tightly while in a quiet place,you can hear your own muscles working.

Experience of sound without external stimulation can also be a result of tinnitus. This is caused by damage to the hairs in the ear which sense vibrations in the air (the sound) or to the nerves which carry sound signals to the brain, or even possibly by "central crosstalk" within the brain.

Answer 2

Silence is the absence of noise.

White noise is sound without meaning i.e. there is the same amount of energy at each frequency in a wide range so that there's no particular sound that emerges. It's analogous to white light which is a mixture of other wavelengths of light, so it doesn't have a signature frequency.

So in total silence we do not hear white noise.

Answer 3

you dont just hear white noise in total silence. you need machines to do that. well you can use television sets and radios and any communication device for white noise. actually white noise is something paranormal yet scientific.

as for the question, in total silence you wont hear anything. because it's really silent.
but, you'd hear something though. the sound created by the circulation of your blood. i cant describe the sound and i dunno why we can hear it but i know it does make a sound. and i think that's what you heard.

Answer 4

White noise is equal energy across all frequencies.

That is not silence.

Silence is a perceptual definition. Physically....there is always movement of particles around us, and movement of fluids etc in our heads so we can always "hear" something. In addition, there is always electrical neural firing in our auditory cortex all the way to the level of our hair cells in our cochlea.

But silence.....is a perceptual phenomenon....silence in terms of our percieving a lack of sound...that exists to us. It is purely subjective and has little to do with external phenomenon.

Answer 5

In total silence, I think there are two things you'd hear most. A ringing in your ears, tinnitus, which I believe most people are affected by to some degree, and your heartbeat, as your blood pulses through your ears.

Answer 6

Hi

Try this link.

http://www.purewhitenoise.com/

White noise is a type of noise that is produced by combining sounds of all different frequencies together. If you took all of the imaginable tones that a human can hear and combined them together, you would have white noise.


http://home.howstuffworks.com/question47.htm

Answer 7

Technically, nothing. However, many people will hear some sort of sound This is not sound, but in fact, a physiological pathology called tinnitus.

Answer 8

you hear this buzzing in your ear. It is never complete silent. I have been outside with complete silence but there is always this slight noise in my ear.

Answer 9

You will hear yourself -- including heart beating, blood flowing, stomch moving -- as long as you are alive -- of course -- to hear.