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Why English plurals say s, z or iz: the wug test Say 'cats' and 'dogs' out loud and listen to the last sound. One is a hiss, the other a buzz, and 'buses' adds a whole extra syllable. English spells all three… Language4 min read13 Oct Why a flute and a clarinet sound different on the same note: harmonics and timbre Play the same note on a flute and a clarinet, at the same pitch and loudness, and you can still tell them apart at once. That difference is called timbre, and… Music & Sound4 min read13 Oct Why sand on a vibrating plate draws pictures: Chladni figures Sprinkle sand on a thin metal plate, draw a violin bow along its edge, and the sand leaps into sharp, symmetrical lines. Change the pitch and the picture… Music & Sound4 min read9 Oct Why a tone can climb forever without getting higher: the Shepard illusion Play a tone that climbs and climbs, forever, and never gets any higher. It sounds impossible, but it only takes a few sine waves and one volume curve. A… Music & Sound3 min read6 Oct Why the same sound is a b to English ears and a p to Spanish ears Say "bat" and "pat". The only physical difference is a tiny delay between your lips opening and your vocal cords buzzing, about 12 milliseconds for an English… Language3 min read4 Oct Why you hear bass from a speaker too small to make it: the missing fundamental Your phone speaker is far too small to produce a deep bass note, yet you still hear the bass. The trick is that pitch is not a frequency in the air. It is a… Music & Sound3 min read3 Oct Why people bid more than a dollar for a dollar: Shubik's escalation trap Auction a dollar bill with one twist: the second-highest bidder pays their bid too. It sounds harmless, yet in 1971 economist Martin Shubik reported that… Economics3 min read2 Oct Why 23 people are enough for two to share a birthday Put 23 people in a room and there's a better-than-even chance that two of them share a birthday. That sounds wrong, because 23 is tiny next to 365. The catch… Maths4 min read29 Sep Why Spanish sounds faster than Vietnamese yet says just as much Listen to Spanish or Japanese and it seems to rush past; Vietnamese or Thai can sound almost unhurried. Yet when researchers timed 170 people reading the same… Language5 min read29 Sep Why guitar frets get closer together as you go up the neck Guitar frets crowd together toward the body because of one fact about hearing: we hear pitch by ratio, not by difference. Each fret has to raise the note by… Music & Sound5 min read28 Sep Why some notes sound sweet together and others seem to fight Play C and E together and they sound sweet. Play C and C sharp and they buzz. The notes aren't the problem: the clash only happens when they meet. Every… Music & Sound5 min read28 Sep Why everyone agrees which blob is 'bouba' and which is 'kiki' Show people a soft blob and a spiky star and ask which one is bouba and which is kiki. The words are made up, yet in the classic version of the test about 95%… Language5 min read27 Sep