The Yanny vs Laurel debate is dividing the Internet.
The latest thing that's tearing the Internet apart is not a dress or a pair of slippers, it's an audio clip that different people hear differently. The very short clip which has gone very viral in just two days has people arguing about whether it says "Yanny" or "Laurel" when played. The computer-generated voice has become a source of disagreement with hundreds of people claiming to hear "Yanny" while several others promise they can hear nothing but "Laurel". What do you hear? Put on your earphones and find out:
According to CNET, the audio clip was first shared on Reddit and went viral from there. It has now, in fact, also led to various news outlets conducting investigations into why some people hear "Laurel" while other hear "Yanny".
The Verge reports that according to Lars Riecke, an assistant professor of audition and cognitive neuroscience at Maastricht University, the clip's secret lies in the frequency.
"Older adults tend to start losing their hearing at the higher frequency ranges, which could explain why Riecke could only hear Laurel, but his eight-year-old daughter could hear Yanny... if you remove all the low frequencies, you hear Yanny. If you remove the high frequencies, you hear Laurel."
Simply put, if you hear 'Laurel', you might just be too old.
A YouTube video also plays with pitches to attempt to understand how people hear different words in the same audio clip.
Whether you hear Laurel or Yanny, there is no denying that the recording has led to some hilarious reactions:
Moral of the story? Don't trust everything you hear on the Internet.
What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel pic.twitter.com/jvHhCbMc8I
- Cloe Feldman (@CloeCouture) May 15, 2018
According to CNET, the audio clip was first shared on Reddit and went viral from there. It has now, in fact, also led to various news outlets conducting investigations into why some people hear "Laurel" while other hear "Yanny".
The Verge reports that according to Lars Riecke, an assistant professor of audition and cognitive neuroscience at Maastricht University, the clip's secret lies in the frequency.
"Older adults tend to start losing their hearing at the higher frequency ranges, which could explain why Riecke could only hear Laurel, but his eight-year-old daughter could hear Yanny... if you remove all the low frequencies, you hear Yanny. If you remove the high frequencies, you hear Laurel."
Simply put, if you hear 'Laurel', you might just be too old.
A YouTube video also plays with pitches to attempt to understand how people hear different words in the same audio clip.
Whether you hear Laurel or Yanny, there is no denying that the recording has led to some hilarious reactions:
The people that hear Yanny instead of Laurel are the ones that Thanos eliminates
- IGZ (@igzrap) May 16, 2018
Literally everything at my show just stopped to see if people hear Laurel or Yanny. I hear Laurel. https://t.co/efWRw1Gj0L
- Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) May 15, 2018
Young people: Yanny
- Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) May 15, 2018
Old people: Laurel
Editors: Pageviewshttps://t.co/9MNZRsOVdt
I heard "yanny" for 30 seconds then was able to hear laurel and now I can't stop hearing laurel and really miss yanny.
- Steve Agee (@steveagee) May 16, 2018
Moral of the story? Don't trust everything you hear on the Internet.
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