Ducks

[Lambretto]

Why dont duck quacks echo?

[Richard Head]

Bbbbbbecaaaauuuuseeeeee theyyyyyy dddoooonnn'tttt ooooooo kkkkkkkk ???? "Quack" ssssseeee,, ttttollld yyyoooy ssoooo.

[Cetti]

They do, it's just another Urban Myth that keeps re-appearing.

[bernardo]

What makes you think they don't?

[Sylday]

This fallacy may have arisen because duck quacks are repetitive, and therefore it's hard to differentiate between the echo and the original sound.

[SteveD]

Because ducks' habitats are in areas which are not conducive to generating echoes.

[Phantaxus]

Sky One has a program called Brainiac:Science Abuse during which they blew up a caravan every week and proved a ducks quack will echo.

[Quizmonster]

Scientists - most recently (September 2003) in the Department of Acoustics at Salford University - have yet again proved it's a complete myth that a duck's quack does not echo. It is not a wholly groundless myth in one respect only...that is, that the acoustics of a quack are such that they tend to �mask' the echo, which can make it sound as if there isn't one. Apparently, the sound of a quack decays very gradually and the echo returns as the initial sound is still fading away, rather than after it has �disappeared' completely. Thus, the echo is partially concealed but it is still there!