Official News page 4

REAL LIFE NEWS: IN SPACE, NO-ONE CAN HEAR YOU WHISTLE

by Hazed

Did you know that it's impossible to whistle in space? Or, to be more specific, in a spacesuit? That's what astronaut Dan Barry found out when he was on a spacewalk in 1999, and several others since then have tried and failed to give a little whistle.

The reason why you can't whistle while you work in space is because of the way whistling works. When you whistle, you pass a stream of air through a narrow passage leading to an enclosed space. The air in that space vibrates fast, which produces a sound. In order for this to work, you need a lot of air to provide the pressure needed for the vibrations to occur.

Inside a spacesuit, of course there is air to keep the wearer alive, but it's only a tiny amount compared with the whole atmosphere back on Earth. The air in the spacesuit only puts about 4.3 pounds of pressure per square inch onto the wearer. (On Earth, it's 14.7 pounds per square inch. ) That's just too feeble for the amount of air that you would produce during an attempted whistle to create the vibrations necessary to make the sound. So even if you do put your lips together and blow, no-one will hear it.

Source: http://io9.com/5820564/why-astronauts-cant-whistle-in-space

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