The Unknowns of Sound

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New series from unexplainable about the weird, perplexing, enormous unknowns of our senses. We're starting by trying to make some sense of sound - what are we actually hearing when we're hearing? How much of it is the real world, and how much is constructed in our brain? All knowledge must come through the senses: all that we perceive and all the awareness of our daily existence. It's like a domino effect moving through space... Sound is rapid changes in air pressure that happen when something is vibrating.

In the same way optical illusions trick our eyes, audio illusions can trick our ears. This raises a fundamental question: What is hearing, and how much of it is made up by our brains?

This is the first episode of our new six-part series, Making Sense.

You can find more of Diana Deutsch’s auditory illusions at https://bit.ly/3Mdh6H4, Matthew Winn's research at http://www.mattwinn.com/Research.html, and Mike Chorost's writing at https://michaelchorost.com

For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable

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