The internet is once again divided. Do you hear Yanny or Laurel?
If you have been somehow living under a rock (or you know, actually living your life), you probably missed the latest internet debacle. Before, there was the infamous white/gold dress versus the blue/black dress that had people debating. Now there’s Yanny versus Laurel.
The clip and original “Yanny or Laurel” poll were posted all over the internet by high school students. It was apparently recorded from a vocabulary website playing through the speakers on a computer. Just to set the record straight, the word was Laurel, as in the word for a wreath worn on the head.
So why do some people hear Yanny? To be honest, I replayed the audio several times and all I could hear was Yanny. I had to really strain my ear before I picked up on Laurel and it was just Laurel over and over.
The New York Times created simple tool that allows you to listen to the original audio filtered in different ways. The lower frequencies makes Laurel easily distinguishable while the higher frequencies makes it easier to hear both.
There have been several explanations to why this happen. These include various hearing range of individuals and the frequency ranges of different speakers and headphones. Some experts also say that the low quality of the recording affects how people could hear it.
So, what do you hear? Is it Yanny or Laurel?
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