Ladies and gentlemen, the Internet is abuzz once again!
It wasn't that long ago that we were all fighting over what color the dress was. Was it blue and black or gold and white? (hint, the correct answer is blue and black).
Well, yesterday the whole thing blew up again when a fashion blogger snapchatted and tweeted out an audio clip with a vote. The audio clip is embedded below and people are fighting over what they hear. Do you hear Laurel or Yanny?
I hear Laurel (most of the time), but people are literally throwing down right now on the Interwebs. It's trending all over the world right now and everybody, literally everybody is talking about it.
So hears the scoop (see what I did there?!?)...
The good people over at Buzzfeed tracked down a real audio specialist to get to the bottom of this. They talked to Raul Veiga, CEO of production company Radial Produções, who told them that this is all about the McGurk Effect.
Essentially, depending on your age your hearing changes. A general rule of thumb tells us that, younger people can hear higher pitches better and as your life wears on you slowly, or quickly lose some of that range of hearing. Think back to a hearing test where they test your ears with beeps and you raise your hands. That's what they're testing, what pitches can you hear and what can't you hear. Hearing damage and general aging can result in a slight lose of hearing when it comes to certain pitches.
The device or speakers that you're listening to it on can also impact what you hear. A speaker system with a lower frequency range like laptop speakers will sound different than if you have fancy speakers or headphones on.
So what do you hear?