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  • pseudo-YASID: Spang on, but no cigar

    From Joy Beeson@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 23 22:13:09 2024
    In a story I wrote on a typewriter, I predicted that everyone in my
    far-future setting would carry a pocket terminal.

    I also said that a terminal that included a sound system would be
    twice as bulky as everyone else's. (The length of sound waves
    controls the sizes of microphones and speakers, so they can't be
    tiny.)


    Are there published stories in which predictions are laughably
    correct?


    --
    Joy Beeson
    joy beeson at centurylink dot net
    http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

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  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Joy Beeson on Mon Dec 23 21:49:28 2024
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Joy Beeson <[email protected]d> wrote:

    In a story I wrote on a typewriter, I predicted that everyone in my far-future setting would carry a pocket terminal.

    I also said that a terminal that included a sound system would be
    twice as bulky as everyone else's. (The length of sound waves
    controls the sizes of microphones and speakers, so they can't be
    tiny.)


    Are there published stories in which predictions are laughably
    correct?

    Don't you mean laughably INcorrect? After all, every cellphone has a
    microphone and speaker and it is the size of the video screen that
    determines the size of smartphones.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. -------------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

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  • From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to Joy Beeson on Tue Dec 24 11:38:56 2024
    On 2024-12-24, Joy Beeson <[email protected]d> wrote:

    I also said that a terminal that included a sound system would be
    twice as bulky as everyone else's. (The length of sound waves
    controls the sizes of microphones and speakers, so they can't be
    tiny.)

    Tell us more. The traditional frequency band for transmission of
    human voice is 300 to 3,400 Hz, which in air corresponds to wavelengths
    of about 0.1 to 1.1 meters.

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Dec 24 13:18:35 2024
    Christian Weisgerber <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2024-12-24, Joy Beeson <[email protected]d> wrote:

    I also said that a terminal that included a sound system would be
    twice as bulky as everyone else's. (The length of sound waves
    controls the sizes of microphones and speakers, so they can't be
    tiny.)

    Tell us more. The traditional frequency band for transmission of
    human voice is 300 to 3,400 Hz, which in air corresponds to wavelengths
    of about 0.1 to 1.1 meters.

    This sets the limit of an efficient voice-grade speaker in free air to
    about the size of a transistor radio. If you want to make it smaller,
    you either need to stop working in free air (like using earplugs) or use
    long folded tubes and sacrifice a lot of efficiency (which is what cellphone speakers do.)

    You can draw a triangle with regard to speakers: each apex marked
    SIZE, LF EXTENSION, and EFFICIENCY. You can be anywhere inside the
    triangle but you can't get out of it.
    --scott


    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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