It is well known that stadium noise can influence play on a football field, typically by interfering with the opposing team's ability to communicate with one another while setting up plays. Penn State personnel placed 11 sound meters in Beaver Stadium and found that the noise level could rise to 110 decibels (50X baseline) when the opposing team had the ball. Then, in an empty stadium, they used a loudspeaker to generate noise and measured the sound intensity on the field. This allowed them to map the locations at which the (loud) student body could be most effective.
Link, via Physics Buzz.
To take advantage of this acoustic effect, Penn State plans to move the 20,000 seats in its student section squarely into the southern end zone when the entire stadium is reseated for the 2011 season. Barnard's computer model predicts that this relocation will quiet the east side of field slightly but increase the sound on the west side by almost 50 percent -- cutting the range of a quarterback's voice by another six inches and potentially causing more false starts and penalty opportunities.
Link, via Physics Buzz.
Newest 5 Comments
@Colt Seaver - I do too. Even now it's extremely poor sportsmanship if not outright cheating. I guess that if you can't win by skill then you must resort to nefarious means.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
quiet*
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
It's not dumb. The students will be quite when their team has the ball anyways. The team also gets to choose which goal to defend if they lose the toss. This way Penn State can give the visitors the loud side in the second half when the visitors are trying to come back or during the beginning to cause them not to get a good start. I think it's brilliant!
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
I remember back when this was called cheating.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)
I think a small decrease in noise at one end for a massive increase at the other sounds pretty reasonable. I would be interested to know what the change is at the 50 yard line, rather than the end zones, and how they define "slightly" when describing the decrease.
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)