Kent Gee, chair of BYU's Department of Physics and Astronomy, spoke about the impact of noise during his June 3 forum address at the Marriott Center.
Gee, who recently received BYU’s 2024–25 Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, said he felt a sense of inadequacy and impostor syndrome as he prepared for the forum. After watching several previous Maeser Lecture addresses, he questioned whether he was ready to join their ranks.
In the process, he came to understand something new.
“My feelings represented a form of noise that prevented me from feeling gratitude and determination to take what I’ve learned to bless my students, family and others more deeply,” Gee said.
He played various frequencies to the audience, noting that anymore more than 85 decibels can cause noise-induced hearing loss for sufficiently long exposures.
He also said that increasing numbers of people suffer from noise-induced hearing loss, noting around 20% of young adults have noise-induced hearing loss and 25% of adults age 50-59 have it as well.
Gee said that research shows that noise disrupts, distracts and debilitates in ways still being understood. Noise can also cause or exacerbate a variety of health conditions, including diabetes to depression.
He then demonstrated the concept of Pareidolia, a physical phenomenon where people perceive meaning patterns or images in random stimuli by playing a nonsensical sound made to mimic human speech.
“These 'phantom words' are a form of auditory pareidolia, with noises that distract us, we pursue meaning where none exists,” Gee said.
Tying it to the Old Testament, Gee told the story of the prophet Elijah, when the Lord tells him to stand before him on Mount Horeb. He taught him an important lesson on noise.
“Wind howling, broken rocks breaking, earthquakes rattling and fire roaring are all impressive acoustical events, but without meaning,” Gee said. “Elijah turned away from the noise and its distractions as he learned to recognize an all-important still, small voice.”
Gee demonstrated an active noise reduction experiment, also known as noise canceling, by having one loudspeaker in place play a low-frequency noise. He had two students move another loudspeaker on a cart, playing an identical, but opposite signal, to the one standing still.
The sound got quieter the closer the loudspeaker on the cart made it to the other loudspeaker.
He then compared this to daily life.
“It is the things closest to us that most strongly influence the amount of noise we hear,” Gee said. “And, sometimes it just takes a small adjustment to change our whole environment."
Gee spoke about his research with an undergraduate student at a new firing range at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
To demonstrate shock waves and illustrate to the audience what a small explosion can sound and feel like, he showed a demonstration where two balloons filled with hydrogen and oxygen exploded.
He then spoke on the various opportunities students had the chance to be part of relating to sound. Some of these included studying the noises in aircraft toilets, fighter aircraft noise and the NASA Artemis I launch.
Speaking on fighter aircraft noise, he said that to date, more than 30 BYU students have worked with government and industry researchers to understand how high-speed turbulent jet plane from military aircrafts make noise. One student he spoke of went on to work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, designing acoustics for temples, showing that physics skills are transferable.
A vital part of his address was a major aspect of military jet noise called crackle, which is an intense jet noise radiation that results in dozens of shock waves per second, a popping sound that can be compared to a water bottle being crumpled.
Gee’s research shows crackle increases loudness and annoyance.
He tied in his research to the theme of the talk near the end of his devotional.
“Our world is increasingly noisy,” Gee said. "Whether explosions, traffic, military aircraft, toilets or rockets, I hope our research contributes to reducing the cacophony.”
He concluded his remarks by quoting President Russell M. Nelson’s April 2021 address, “What We Are Learning and Will Never Forget.”
“Quiet time is sacred time — time that will facilitate personal revelation and instill peace,” Gee said, quoting President Nelson.
Gee said he is confident that there are meaningful steps those in the audience can take to tune out the crackle and find the calm.