sound waves

[altyjohn]

Can anyone explain why it is possible to still pick out individual voices in a crowded room? Why don't the sound waves from the different people interfer with each other and cause distortion

[wacky racer]

They would interfere but there are so many frequencies and sources (and voices are intermittent transmissions) that you wouldn't notice.

[Hippy]

As someone with impaired hearing in one ear and tinnitus I can assure you that the sound waves do interfere and become distorted. However, if you have good hearing in both ears (as I longingly remember) your brain does a marvelous job at sorting it out. Each ear gets a slightly different version so you can use the ear/brain combination to do a fantastic filter job and get at the information you want.

[tubeway]

The difference in frequecy between ears (higher frequency sound can be lost as it travels round your head) and the difference in time between the sound being recieved by each ear combined with the different intensity (loudness) of sound can allow the brain to pinpoint where speech is happening.

This is the reason why people (usually) benefit more from wearing two hearing aids rather than one