What would teleportation sound like?

[leroyjenkens]

I have a friend who has a film with teleportation in it, and when the people teleport, it makes no sound and doesn't have any effect on the area the teleporter left or arrived at.
Since a teleporter leaving a location would create a vacuum the size of their body, and the air would quickly collapse into that space, that must have a sound associated with it and an effect on the surrounding area. I assume the effect would look like wind blowing towards the vacuum. But what would it sound like? I've seen videos of containers that collapse due to a vacuum, but I don't know how much of that sound is the sound of the container itself. What would it sound like if there was no container? Do we have real world examples of a vacuum being suddenly filled with air to reference? Thank you.

 

[BillTre]

As I recall, Star Trek teleportation kind of fades in an out, so it would not have a kind of snap effect of creating a local vacuum. Air would be expected to flow gradually into the evacuated space as the teleportee gradually disappeared.
This OTOH raises the question with me of how the teleportation would be successful since the air that went into the evacuated space might also get teleported in the new location along with the person (or thing). This might cause the bends of air bubbles in tissues and blood vessels.

At the destination location, whatever the form of teleportation (fade in/out or a more snappy form) the opposite effect would occur (explosion vs. implosion).

Here is an obvious experiment:
Draw a vacuum on a fairly large container with a large closable opening that is closed.
Open it and see (or hear) what happens.

 

[Ibix]

Blake's 7's teleporter effect was a white dot that expanded into an outline of the person before they appeared. It was supposed to be a forcefield that pushed the air out of the way so you didn't get a sound. It also neatly obscured the artefacts from the cut from "background" to "actor standing there". They also had a wavy effect - I think that was used on video when you couldn't just have a bloke draw white lines on the print. Or the shoestring wouldn't stretch any further.

I'm not sure what sound it would make. Popping a balloon sends out a pressure wave from the over-pressure in the balloon being released, so unless they've got a Blake's 7-esque forcefield to move the air gently then I'd argue for a pop when you appear. But when you disappear? The only everyday thing I can think of there is those tamper-evident jars where they're packed in reduced pressure and they pop out when opened. They do kind of pop when opened, but I think that's mostly the lid changing shape. I'm not certain that it would be very noisy.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Thanks Bill and Ibix for your responses. I thought about a container with low pressure in it having its lid opened for air to rush in, but I wasn't sure how much of that sound was due to the edges of the container vibrating from the air brushing against it. I have read a bit about cavitation, but all the examples I could find were under water. I didn't know how applicable that would be.

The balloon pop is a good example. For some reason, I kinda dismissed it out of hand because I assumed the sound was from the balloon material, but from a little bit of research I just did, the sound does come from the air itself.
I do think a balloon pop sound when someone appears would be kinda silly, there certainly should be some sort of sound.

Thanks again.

 

[member 656954]

If the teleportation needs to be stealthy - like police arriving - then make it stealthy but still audible. Perhaps a hiss or faint pop. If it does not need to be stealthy, you should use some noise to accompany the magic of teleportation. Star Trek did this with the rising ring and then overlay whoosh, which is more engaging for the teleport sequence (look for a clip on YouTube and watch it with the sound off. It's a bit naff.) But did you ask your friend why the sequence was silent? Unless it's for arty effect, it seems a missed opportunity to enhance the viewer experience.

In terms of the actual sound, a 70kg person has a volume of about 71 liters. Which means you are creating about that much vacuum space for the air to rush into when they teleport out. Moving air causes sound, and if the teleportation happens at femtosecond speed, you're going from about 101,000 pascals to hard vacuum in that volume essentially instantaneously. The adjacent atmosphere would rapidly cool as atoms expanded into the vacuum then reheat via collisions toward the center.

This is not going to be quiet and I would expect a very loud bang to accompany the exit of your teleportee.

 

[Whipley Snidelash]

Teleportation and beaming is kind of insane. The chamber is basically a disintegrator. So anyone who is being transported out is basically completely destroyed first so no beaming for me. What’s the sound of 7*1027 atoms screaming as they die?

 

[member 656954]

The chamber is basically a disintegrator

That's certainly one approach, but alternatively, teleportation could involve translation through other dimensions, no dying atoms needed

 

[phinds]

Personally, I think it should make a slurping sound, like when you suck out the last dregs of a milkshake.