MAR 14 1898 
KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 
Vou. VII. JANUARY, 1898. Not r. 
Experiments in Judging the Distance of 
sound.” 
BY AGS. Uda Sel Ufa ba 
The object of the experiments described in this paper was to de- 
termine how accurately the distance at which a sound is produced 
can be judged, and how much variation in judgment, if any, is 
caused by changing the position of the body relative to the direc- 
tion from which the sound proceeds. 
A chalk line fifty feet in length was drawn on the floor of a large 
room. This was marked off into distances of one foot. The per- 
son experimented upon sat blindfolded at one end of this line. In 
order to cover up the noise made by the movements of the person 
conducting the experiment, the subject kept striking the arm of the 
chair with a small block of wood, pausing at intervals to hear the 
sound whose distance he was to estimate. 
The person performing the experiment moved back and forth 
along the line using a telegraph snapper and an A pitch pipe to 
make the sounds. No regular order was observed in selecting the 
distances for producing the sounds, nor was the subject aware of 
the distances at which his judgments were recorded. He was told, 
however, that no sound would be produced beyond fifty feet. 
All subjects were tested in four positions. These were: (1) with 
the right side towards the sound; (2) with the left side towards the 
sound; (3) with the subject facing the sound; and (4) with the 
back towards the sound. Judgments were recorded every five 
feet. The telegraph snapper and pitch pipe were used with no 
*Read before the Kansas Academy of Science at its annual session Oct. 29, 1897. 
(1) KAN. UNIV. QUAR. VOL. VII, NO. 1, JAN., 1898, SERIES A 
