Last but not least: The quietest place in the world
Do you spend your days in a noisy open-plan office, and when you get home in the evening—if you even open your soundproof windows—are you greeted by deafening traffic noise? Then maybe you should spend a day at the quietest place in the world.
After that, you will probably never again be annoyed by your colleagues banging away at their keyboards and talking wildly. And instead of being annoyed by the street noise, you will appreciate every roar of the engine. Because absolute silence is not as beautiful as we imagine it to be.
Orfield Laboratories in the USA has created a place in which 99.99 percent of noise is absorbed. According to Welt.de, a room in which you sleep has an average volume of 30 decibels. In the quietest room in the world, a volume of minus nine decibels was measured. So it really is quiet. But absolute silence doesn't seem to be as pleasant as you might imagine - no one has ever been able to stay in this room for longer than 45 minutes. This is partly because you suddenly hear noises from your own body that you weren't expecting.
But anyone who thinks the project is just a gimmick designed to free mankind from its fanatical quest for silence is wrong. The studio complex is used by companies to test the acoustics of sounds - for example, cell phones or car fittings. Bob Dylan also recorded an album in the building, and occasionally astronauts who are to spend months in a space station train for their mission. So this quietest place in the world is a useful thing.
> Further information on the absolutely silent room can be found at Welt.de.
