Screeching Sound of Peeling Tape

(journals.aps.org)

54 points | by akshatjiwan 4 days ago

8 comments

  • icosian 10 hours ago
    For a long time after my daughter was born, I wasn't sure if she could hear or not. I tried to get her to react / turn her head / wake up to voice, music, claps... Nothing.

    One day I was taping up a box behind her and I pulled out a length of packing tape. It made that awful screeching noise and she was startled. It was a repeatable result. Her hearing was fine, she was just super chilled about noise in general. I found her limit with a roll of tape.

  • elteto 4 hours ago
    That’s really cool. Scotch tape is just weird, peeling it also generates x-rays (in a vacuum):

    https://www.technologyreview.com/2008/10/23/217918/x-rays-ma...

  • qlm 12 hours ago
    "The screeching of peeling tape is a familiar albeit annoying sound."

    I don't find it annoying, I quite like it. The only time I've experienced "ASMR" was from somebody peeling tape next to me.

    • ericyd 5 hours ago
      Agree, it really depends on the tape for me. Painters tape has quite a nice sound as it's peeled
      • klondike_klive 4 hours ago
        I really like the doppler effect (?) of the sound as the tape gets longer.
        • boothby 3 hours ago
          Not the Doppler effect. The tone gets lower, the wavelength increases, with the increasing length of the resonating body.
  • leni536 12 hours ago
    Scotch tape just keeps on giving in science.
  • OptionOfT 8 hours ago
    I remember buying the Scotch Magic Tape, the matte one.

    I was surprised that it didn't make the sound. Probably because it's a little bit more flexible?

    • birdsongs 3 hours ago
      I found "quiet" packing tape recently. I bought it, while highly skeptical, for my last move. It was barely more expensive. I don't recall seeing it before.

      Super pleasant, did not make the rip crackle squeal sound at all.

  • etrautmann 10 hours ago
    This was a surprisingly satisfying and interesting read. Cool setup and delightfully random but well answered question.
  • HelloUsername 9 hours ago
    Can also be used for apple biting sound effect