Are you fed up with so much noise pollution around you? If yes! Then you need to visit the quietest place on Earth. Here you will not hear the horn of vehicles, tap-tap of keyboards, sound of machines etc. World’s quietest room is located in United States. Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota is quietest because it can block 99.99 percent sound. This place holds the record for being the quietest place in the world. But after the tour to anechoic chamber Chicago you will know how scary it would be to live in quietest place in the world. Let’s take a look at how it feels to be at the quietest place in the world.

Anechoic Chamber at the Orfield Laboratories

Anechoic chamber at the Orfield Laboratories is the quietest place in the world. It is quieter than quite. Here the silence become so scary that a person starts to feel pressure on his ears. The silence at this place will drive you crazy.

Perhaps you have watched the super hit movie “A Quiet Place” released in 2018. Your perspective about living in silence might change after watching that movie but in reality quietness can be frightening.

Here is what the owner of Orfield Laboratories Steven Orfield have to say about the quietness in Anechoic Chamber:

“We challenge people to sit in the room in the dark-one person stayed in there for 45 minutes.

When it is quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You will hear the heart beating; sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. In the Anechoic Chamber, you become the sound.”

Guinness World Record

The anechoic chamber holds the Guinness Book of World Record for being the World’s Quietest Room. Here the level of sound is -9 decibels. But now Building 87 built by Microsoft has broken the record.

What does the word Anechoic means?

The word anechoic means “no echo”. In this chamber the walls, roofs and floor all absorb the sound. Usually ordinary surfaces reflect it but opposite is the case for Orfield labs.

How long can a person stay in Anechoic Chamber?

You must be wondering how long can you stay in that chamber. George Foy has set the record for staying the longest in anechoic chamber. He spent 45 minutes there.  

Structure of the Room

The room is created with sound proof foam, 3.3-foot-thick fiberglass acoustic wedges. Insulated steels constitute the walls of chamber. The steel walls are surrounded by one foot thick concrete.

Orientation is Real Challenge

Sounds help us in orientation. Humans use sound as cues for movement. But in anechoic chamber it becomes impossible to maintain balance so there is no option but to sit on a chair. Steve Orfield have to say something about this disorienting experience:

“In the anechoic chamber, you don’t have any cues. You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and manoeuvre”.

Why this room is designed?

This room is not designed for tourist purpose but to check the quality products like how much sound an LED produce. However, Orfield Laboratories allow visitors to experience the quietness once a week. You have to pay over $200 for single visit.

Current Quietest Place on Earth

Building 87 in Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington is the quietest place on Earth now. This research lab has booked the record for world’s quietest place. The sound level here is -20.35 decibels, much lower than Orfield Laboratories.

Unlike Orfield Laboratories this chamber is not open to public visits. It is solely designed for research purpose like to check the quality of audio technologies. Nobody know how long can anyone stay in this chamber.

Microsoft Spokesperson said:

“The chamber’s primary purpose is to ensure an acoustically controlled environment. This is needed for making scientific and engineering measurements for the design, development and testing of awesome audio technologies in Microsoft’s products”.

During training astronauts learn to adapt the silence of space. Therefore, NASA use such anechoic chambers to train them.

Well, after reading these facts about Orfield Laboratories and Mcrosoft’s quietest room, now silence is kind of scaring me. We all love to sit in quiet and serene environment but excessive quietness can be dangerous.