I get constructive and deconstructive, but those are usually in the context of being the same frequency and just being out of phase. I’m talking like…you and your bud having a conversation in a restaurant, with music playing, convos around you, sound of wait staff, etc. If a waiter drops a plate, how does that sound transit through at that higher, unique frequency through all the other noise so that all can hear it?
Thank you for your time!
In: Physics
Sounds do cancel each other out, and also reinforce each other, all the time. The everyday sounds you hear are complex and occur across tons of frequencies, so the fact that two random sounds cancel each other out for a millisecond at a certain frequency doesn’t make a big difference to your overall experience of the sound. Your brain is also good at filling in gaps and isolating sounds from one another, so even when there’s a little interference, your brain can fix your perception.
Interference is primarily actually observed with synthetic sounds, like pure isolated frequencies or synthesizer samples that take the exact same waveform and shift its frequency. Outside of synthetic sounds like that, it’s very difficult to actually perceive the interference (either constructive or destructive) of normal sounds.
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