Pub Nite Prius Capers

Pub nite tonight. A chance to sit around and solve the problems of the universe. And create a few new ones. I explained my scheme for messing with people's heads using a Toyota Prius. This is a car which has a drive mechanism which allows it to be powered by an electric motor and so move along virtually silently.

Now you know how when a car passes you at speed it goes EEEEEEAAAAAWWWWW as the doppler effect makes it first sound high pitched as it comes towards you and then low pitched as it whizzes away? Well, I want to mount a speaker on a silent Prius that goes WWWWWAAAAAEEEEE as it goes past. So to the person it is passing the car just seems to go AAAAAAAAAAAAAA. (are you getting this). I was kind of wondering if people would actually notice that the car sounds more like a flying saucer than a real car.

Ian and Pete were mildly taken with the concept once I had got the idea accross. But not so taken as to buy a Prius and try it. If any (or either) of my readers gets round to doing this I'd love to know the result.

Comments

[Willeth]

Haha, I've actually thought about this before. The only problem (as far as I can see, I'm not a physicist) would be not only keeping the car at a predetermined and constant speed, but also directing the speaker to alter the tone at exactly the right tone to counteract the car. Add to that the fact that you have to aim it at one particular person and calculate it so that they hear it exactly right, and it starts getting exceedingly complicated, ivolving some sort of modified parking radar or something.

What I don't know is if the ear would be able to distinguish the two sounds. I suppose the only way to test this is to get two Prius' going in opposite directions on the same road, get them at the same speed, and go past someone who's standing between them (on the white lines of the road, if you will). Perhaps I should write to Top Gear.