Brown Noise?

Question

Is it really possible to make someone lose control of their bowels by subjecting them to the low frequency known as 'Brown Noise'? and what is the frequency, how loud does it have to be, what equipment is needed, and how close does the subject have to be to the source of the emitted sound?

Answer 1

It is not possible to make someone crap themselves using a frequency of about 22.275 Hz at −30 dB, however it is possible to force someone to collapse in agony using high pitched noise of over 140dB. Humans feel sonic pain at around 115dB.

Answer 2

The Brown Noise is not true, but in college a fraternity brother of mine worked on a similar project he called the Resonator.
He was a physics major and he theorized that a focused sound wave of the proper frequency and intensity could be used to make our rival fraternity brothers p*ss themselves.
Turned out they had no trouble doing that for themselves.
But here's a shout out to you Dave V wherever you are.

Answer 3

They tried this one on Mythbusters and had no success in finding a frequency that would cause the loss of bowel control. They figured the myth was pretty well busted.

Answer 4

The note was tested on the television show MythBusters using Meyer Sound subwoofers on par in quantity and quality with those used at major rock concerts.[1] The experimenters on the show tried a series of frequencies between 5 and 10 Hz at 120–160 dBSPL, but they were unsuccessful in producing the rumored effects. They all reported some physical anxiety and shortness of breath, even a small amount of nausea, but this was dismissed by the participants, noting that sound at that frequency and intensity moves air rapidly in and out of one's lungs.

Another show, Brainiac: Science Abuse, performed a similar experiment using 22.275 Hz at −30 dB (according to the show's producers used by Japan's police and tested by the French military). During the program, they broadcast the note over the air (and into the living rooms of viewers) in an attempt to cause bowel movements among those who had chosen to stay in the room despite repeated warnings and opportunities to leave. It should be noted, however, that no television speakers and very few subwoofers are able to accurately generate sound at this frequency at a significant volume (not to mention the cassette-tape boombox used to generate the note for the test subject). They also alleged to have confirmed the myth with a subject, but this subject was out of camera shot for all of the piece except at the very beginning.

Ben Folds has attempted this feat at a few of his live concerts using his synthesizer. In addition to this claim, while testing the frequency, Folds had sound crew people pass out diapers to the audience at a show in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2003, a team of researchers held a mass experiment where they exposed around 700 people to music laced with 17.5 Hz sine waves, produced by an extra-long stroke subwoofer mounted in the end of a sewer pipe. The experiment took place in the Purcell Room, London. The team was warned against the experiment by physicists (and a person in the local hi-fi store) who were concerned the audience would have to evacuate their bowels in the concert — but in this double-blind test of the effects of airborne infrasound, the team reported none of the legendary effects. There were many reports of anxiety in the audience — and of feelings of pressure on the chest. The team was interested in these extreme bass notes as they have been implicated as a possible explanation for ostensible hauntings.

Jürgen Altmann of the University of Dortmund, an expert on sonic weapons, says that there is no reliable evidence for nausea and vomiting caused by infrasound.[2]

Answer 5

It's called "Brown Note" and it is urban legend.

Supposedly our bodies have a resonant frequency, which when hit will cause us to lose control of our bodily functions. In other words, your nervous system loses control of voluntary and involuntary body movements and you randomly react. I believe this to be highly unlikely, but even if it were true, you would need a lot of power behind that frequency(about 5 to 9 Hz)

Answer 6

No they tested it on mythbusters and they found it to be false.

Answer 7

Nope, they proved it wrong on mythbusters.