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Comment by AnthonyMouse | Hacker News Reader

> The average person around them knows quite a bit about the noise level, and how far it carries.

Do they? How much noise do you imagine comes from a data center that isn't operating a gas turbine?

I believe there’s been a number of investigative journalists/ YouTubers that have looked into this and it can be quite staggering. Not just human audible noise but infrasound and ultrasound as well. IIRC Ben Jordan’s video “ Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons” would probably be a good place to start.

They could build these data centers to eliminate the noise but it’s cheaper to ruin the livability of surrounding areas.

Ultrasound is extremely non-penetrating and wouldn't make it through the walls of a building. Infrasound is the opposite and would go through most anything, and in principle can be produced by anything that moves, but the thing to care about at those frequencies is the amplitude, i.e. the sound volume. It's a meaningful concern from things like wind farms that have massive slow-turning turbines, but there is nothing in a data center that moves that kind of volume. On top of that, having multiple independent small sources in the same place lessens the effect, because multiple sources that emit at the same frequency but out of phase with each other cancel each other out.

Undoubtedly if you get some measurement equipment and stand next to a data center you could register some infrasound, but the same would be true if you stand next to an ordinary office building or in an empty field, because infrasound carries for hundreds of miles and there are much larger sources than data centers.

"There is a sound but you can't hear it trust me bro" is solidly into YouTube quacks territory.

>Ultrasound is extremely non-penetrating and wouldn't make it through the walls of a building

sometimes people like to be able to be outside. the 'quiet' part of the covenant of quiet enjoyment

When you're outside you're not inside the walls of a data center.

And not all of the noise is generated inside the datacenter, especially those with onsite turbines.

> How much noise do you imagine comes from a data center that isn't operating a gas turbine?

That video by Ben Jordan is emotionally convincing but it makes no solid case for any of its claims.

>I believe there’s been a number of investigative journalists/ YouTubers that have looked into this and it can be quite staggering.

The only thing staggering is the amount of trust placed in "YouTubers".

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