| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Edward Green" |
| Date: |
24 Sep 2004 07:25:30 PM |
| Object: |
Why do only some flies buzz? |
Seed for idle speculation:
Some house flies emit a loud buzzing sound. Yet a mean looking green
bottle fly of similar size to the loud buzzers just flew by my nose,
seemingly in silence.
How does it avoid pumping energy into sound?
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| User: "OG" |
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| Title: Re: Why do only some flies buzz? |
25 Sep 2004 07:02:57 PM |
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"Edward Green" <spamspamspam3@netzero.com> wrote in message
news:eca320d0.0409241625.50c7ab59@posting.google.com...
Seed for idle speculation:
Some house flies emit a loud buzzing sound. Yet a mean looking green
bottle fly of similar size to the loud buzzers just flew by my nose,
seemingly in silence.
How does it avoid pumping energy into sound?
Could be the sound isn't in your range of hearing. If above 25kHz or
below 30Hz or something you may not hear it.
I'm only guessing here - get an ultrasonic bat detector and point it at
the 'silent' ones to find out.
Could be the smoothness of the flapping motion, a buzzing noise tends to
imply a saw-tooth wave profile, and this contains quite high freqency
overtones that can be distinctively heard. Maybe the silent ones have a
more sinusoidal wave profile.
I'm only guessing here - get an oscilloscope and point it at both types
to find out.
Sounds like it could be fun investigating - no pun intended.
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| User: "mitch perkins" |
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| Title: Re: Why do only some flies buzz? |
25 Sep 2004 11:42:45 PM |
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(Edward Green) wrote in message news:<eca320d0.0409241625.50c7ab59@posting.google.com>...
Seed for idle speculation:
Some house flies emit a loud buzzing sound. Yet a mean looking green
bottle fly of similar size to the loud buzzers just flew by my nose,
seemingly in silence.
How does it avoid pumping energy into sound?
Two ways come to laymind -
1) wing size : weight
2) wing motion/structure/surface texture
That's more than two ways, but I'm working with a two-item list
restriction. (??)
I wonder if you "worried" a wing from each of the flies you
mentioned close to your ear would they sound different. The loud
buzzer's might be more brittle and papery sounding.
Mitch
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| User: "tj Frazir" |
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| Title: Re: Why do only some flies buzz? |
24 Sep 2004 08:53:18 PM |
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wax buildup ?
Flys that dont buz must drink Im shure.
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| User: "Edward Green" |
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| Title: Re: Why do only some flies buzz? |
25 Sep 2004 07:32:58 PM |
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(tj Frazir) wrote in message news:<26012-4154CF8E-437@storefull-3214.bay.webtv.net>...
wax buildup ?
Flys that dont buz must drink Im shure.
Ah. Flys that have a buzz, don't have a buzz?
Cunning.
It's time to recycle the story of the drunk fruit fly!
My apartment at that time had screens. But occasionally a fruit fly
would slip by. Not more than one or two at a time, I'm sure. Once,
for a week, I had cocktails at the same time every evening --
Manhattan cocktails, in large Martini glasses. Herman, so I named
him, would come out -- soon a regular to our cocktail hour. No fool,
an educated fly, Herman would land not in the soup, to take a last
dip, but delicately on the rim, to sip and flit. He lived out the
week this way, a drunkard, probably three score and ten for a fruit
fly. Adieu, drunk fly, adieu!
Never did I hear him buzz, it's true. As I write this, a green bottle
fly hovers in and lands on the screen. And yet no buzz either.
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| User: "tj Frazir" |
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| Title: Re: Why do only some flies buzz? |
25 Sep 2004 11:01:14 PM |
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I know allot of barflies.
Years ago I had ship parties after hours in evry port. Split wings
buz regular wings dont.
The female has a split wing and the many males dont.
I just read that ,,now I cant find the page.
wasnt important anyway.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Why do only some flies buzz? |
26 Sep 2004 05:35:31 AM |
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In article <eca320d0.0409251632.25ea478b@posting.google.com>,
(Edward Green) wrote:
GravityPhysics@webtv.net (tj Frazir) wrote in message
news:<26012-4154CF8E-437@storefull-3214.bay.webtv.net>...
wax buildup ?
Flys that dont buz must drink Im shure.
Ah. Flys that have a buzz, don't have a buzz?
Cunning.
It's time to recycle the story of the drunk fruit fly!
My apartment at that time had screens. But occasionally a fruit fly
would slip by. Not more than one or two at a time, I'm sure. Once,
for a week, I had cocktails at the same time every evening --
Manhattan cocktails, in large Martini glasses. Herman, so I named
him, would come out -- soon a regular to our cocktail hour. No fool,
an educated fly, Herman would land not in the soup, to take a last
dip, but delicately on the rim, to sip and flit. He lived out the
week this way, a drunkard, probably three score and ten for a fruit
fly. Adieu, drunk fly, adieu!
Never did I hear him buzz, it's true. As I write this, a green bottle
fly hovers in and lands on the screen. And yet no buzz either.
Is it possible that your fly's buzz is cancelled out by your
computer's buzz? If you listen, you'll hear at least three
different buzzes coming out of your computer gear. I'm basing
this estimate on a 486.
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
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