How Do Cicadas Make Noise? (In Slow Motion) - Smarter Every Day 299

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Do you think all the frequencies are happening on this one mechanical device, or do you think there are multiple animals making the call at different frequencies? I'm leaning towards the wobbles being the higher pitch sounds, and the "progressive buckling" being the lower pitch sound.. I think it would be SO cool to partner up with someone and write a paper on this.
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[@smartereveryday]

NO CICADAS WERE EATEN IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS VIDEO. Do you think all the frequencies are happening on this one mechanical device, or do you think there are multiple animals making the call at different frequencies? I'm leaning towards the wobbles being the higher pitch sounds, and the "progressive buckling" being the lower pitch sound.. I think it would be SO cool to partner up with someone and write a paper on this. On the Ridge Wallet.... I worked it out with Ridge so you can get a free airtag money clip on orders over $76. They were cool and said yes. If you enjoy yours half as much as I enjoy mine it's worth it. Here's that link: www.ridge.com/smarter ! Thanks for considering supporting the sponsor!

[@meritholdingllc123]

I love that sound!

[@ridethecurve55]

I interpret it as 'sequential buckling'. In any event, it's absolutely fascinating!

[@aaronbeverage5817]

Is it possible that the muscles are making sound when the wave from each bucling segment travels down and back up? Kinda like when you tap a high tensil fence with a piece of metal....

[@HugheJaenus]

The way the tymbal moves, reminds me of playing with bendy straws as a kid.

[@glowingtrashpanda]

I was always told that the two different sounds is that one is from the females & the other sound is from the males

[@BrentMitton]

I love how every Smarter Every Day video starts with: "Hey it's me Destin. I've been working on this video for 12-years."

[@smartereveryday]

HaHa...great point. I love this comment. It's weird that it's true... If you only knew what was in the archives. Curiosity is a way of life, and sometimes the opportunities don't present themselves all in one go.

[@ElsweyrDiego]

12 years in the future he will post a video saying he has been working on it since 2024 😁 that's the way dreams works, as long as we realize them one day it can pass years. he now is fulfilling every dream he had in all those years!

[@waynegnarlie1]

11.5 million subscribers rarely happens to "on-the-fly" content providers. Take your time Destin.

[@johnsmith-jq1uc]

@@smartereveryday keep doing it however you do it, it works for us man.

[@Acetyl53]

And I hate how "I love how [...]" comments are artificially pushed to drive the SNR of a comment section into the ground. Useless hyperemotional noise that baits for engagement.

[@veritasium]

There is so much amazing research-grade footage in this video! My favorite is 21:28

[@osmia]

Lol - Slo-mo facial contortions

[@MissGimpsAlot]

😂😂😂

[@4asovoi]

Derek? :D Yeah, should be a gif.

[@bpdp379]

I was certain it was going into his mouth…

[@derrikarenal3308]

yeah well, where's the signed Talent Release Form (Cicada/Musician/Thespian).

[@mundanestuff]

I love how you refuse to acknowledge the increasing number of cicadas crawling on you as the video progresses. That's a great gag that needs to be applauded.

[@I-am-Hrut]

What cicadas? I don't see any cicadas. Cicadas don't even exist. You're crazy. Probably just some smudges on your screen.

[@D3nn1s]

​@@I-am-Hrut i cant see it either, you got a timestamp @OP?

[@jonnyphenomenon]

Oh my word that was giving me the willies.

[@I-am-Hrut]

@@jonnyphenomenon You monster! Give the Willies back! Free the Willies!!!

[@VAXHeadroom]

"Hump? What Hump?"...

[@scilabus]

This is the best kind of videos : curiosity, scientific approach, talking to people. You can tell that this is a work of art (heart) as much as it is science and science communication.

[@gregthorne4292]

“We borrowed a net from a gas station and went cicada hunting again” is about the most Alabama sentence I’ve ever heard. 😂

[@Halfwalker]

No - "Remembered not to eat the cicadas" is the most Alabamamama sentence :P

[@__Jess910]

My favorite was. "What kinda tree is this?" "It's a cicada tree."

[@RIZFERD]

Why they're so small there? They're big here in Indonesia

[@Jakob.Hamburg]

@@RIZFERD Evolution.

[@Rulerofwax24]

8:54 "Oh they're doing it!" felt like classic Alabama boy to me

[@titan401CT]

The tymbal reminded me of plastic bendy straws, and it behaved the same way when you press it down the middle and unpop it by folding. It's insane how a simple mechanism is so effective.

[@elcorado83]

It would be interesting placing the straws in a similar sized hollow body, bending them, then playing back a recording of it at higher speed and comparing it to cicada noise.

[@themodernarmbruster]

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking!!!

[@dksaevs]

i was thinking a tape measure or Venetian blinds

[@dlv5]

plastic pipe multi length extended have same way like straw

[@kingtungstenworldwide4472]

Its incredible how it comes down to these collapsible membranes!! Good work, Destin!!! Also, as the man said, 3/4 timing. Next test, figure out why cicadas dont all fall into the same rhythm like the principle (cant remember the name of it) studied with a metronome.

[@theslowmoguys]

Immense footage 🤯

[@smartereveryday]

Thanks Gav!

[@emilyelizabethbuchanan998]

Should pin this one!

[@7000fps]

Here in Florida we have had cicadas fly to and land on you whilst using a hand/circular saw. There must be something romantic in that high pitch-screeching that the saw blade makes.

[@ferretyluv]

There are cicadas in Hampshire! Go film them!

[@bumblebee4245]

​@@7000fps same with a weedeater here in tn the string spinning creates a really similar frequency as the cicadas so i think that has alot to do with it

[@Smokasaurus]

I like how a cicada lands on Destin's windshield wiper and his response is to check his odometer and say "alright little guy, let's see what you've got"

[@tynebaker]

Bioacoustician here (professional animal eavesdropper), not a cicada researcher you were looking for though. This is lovely, so glad we’re getting nerdy about sound production and animal communication! Fun stuff to note, cicadas are not the only species producing multiple sounds or bands on a spectrogram. You saw this in your spectrogram too with human voice, we put a lot of info in those harmonics! Wild guess based on your footage, but I suspect with cicadas this is a sequential not simultaneously sound. Possibly one frequency is from the initial snap of the tymbal, and one from a resonance band from the wobble, body cavity or environment. I suspect the during chorusing it gets blended to two continuous bands, rather than sequential sounds. Birds on the other hand can create two simultaneously fundamental frequencies (primary sound not echo or resonance). This is due to independent control of the chambers of their syrinx (two independent voice boxes). Check out song sparrows on xenocanto or Macaulay library to see some ‘c’ shaped tracings (syllables) with multiple independent fundamental frequencies, ie two tones produced simultaneously from one animal. In theory with two sound producing tymbals, cicadas could and may do this too, just harder to catch on a spectrogram because I bet they are similar in frequency. Glad you’re staying curious about your world. 👍

[@smartereveryday]

I've never seen the word Bioacoustician. Fascinating! Do you feel like appropriately nuanced every statement in this video?

[@bigmike1432]

@@smartereveryday I was thinking one of the frequencies is the contraction of the hymnal and the other it the faster expansion

[@gohawks3571]

Wow! What a cool job!😎✌️👍👍👍 Edit: Also, thank you for explaining that😊

[@rhr-p7w]

Something I found beautiful about some countries, is that you can make a living from extremely niche, specialized and amazing fields of knowledge. Bioacoustics! I never thought that was a thing. Spectacular!

[@curiousfirely]

@tynebaker Check out the podcast Ologies - I think you would be a perfect fit for a guest, and I would love to hear more about what you do!

[@fastoldman16]

Me yelling "DESTIN THE CICADA IS ON YOUR SHIRT" like a toddler watching Dora.

[@BrotherChad]

😂🤣😂❤

[@pamelabuccilli5960]

me too i shouted get the bug off

[@WrynnCZ]

Yea he did it on purpose I suppose. :D

[@jamesleyda365]

River, forest, blueberry hill

[@twosheepinatrenchcoat5116]

Did you see the one on his ear?

[@ElizabethLopez-hx6xv]

Hey, entomologist here!! Looking at a range map it looks like Alabama and Tennessee are experiencing the emergence of Brood XIX, one of the 13 year cicada broods. I believe that is the only species of periodical cicada you'll be seeing. HOWEVER y'all still have annual cicadas, and several species of those by the looks of it! So that could be factoring into the calls at the larger scale. Also, just an FYI only males have tymbals but both sexes do make noise. The females flick their wings in response, so that is a dynamic you might also be missing when analyzing the male's tymbal. Just letting you know that this video was so cool. I love your mechanical engineering videos but when you do deep dives on the physics of biology it's just extra mind-blowing to me (yes, I'm biased lol). I'm from Texas so we don't get periodical cicadas, but I happen to be doing some research work in the northwest for the summer! Unfortunately still not really in cicada territory but I'm going to make my way out somewhere that does! Please update us once you've done some more analysis because it's so fascinating to see you work through this! (Also, you CAN eat cicadas. I've never tried it but I hear fried they're good!)

[@jackdiaz5616]

I wonder what the females look like at 100000 frames per second. I'm sure the wing flicking sound mechanism is just as fascinating as tymbals.

[@jaykim8851]

If you have a free weekend....drop by the suburbs of the Chicagoland area in Cook county. We have millions of cicadas here emerging.

[@jeremypearson9019]

I wish this comment would go viral. This guy sounds really smart and fun--like he belongs in a video with Destin.

[@dighawaii1]

Cool!

[@markfergerson2145]

Good to see that Dustin’s citizen science is appreciated by actual academics. Good point about annual cicadas. In the mid eighties, in Phoenix Arizona, there was supposedly an emergence of three different cycles of cicadas. If I recall correctly there were seventeen, thirteen and *nine* year cicadas claimed. Could those nine year cicadas have been annuals that were mistaken for something else, or are there potentially other cycles that just haven’t been fully documented? Also, thanks for mentioning female cicada wing sounds. That was also mentioned in the news reports back then but wasn’t fully explained. I think you are right that they make a significant contribution to the overall sound spectrum recorded. Clearly Dustin needs to go out and find some females and get their spectrum so that it can be subtracted from the full recorded spectrum. Again, thanks for chiming in. This channel deserves more of this.

[@PointB1ank]

SmarterEveryDay, Veritasium, and Numberphile/Computerphile. The holy trinity of educational KZbinrs. I'm sure I'm missing a few other great ones as well.

[@DJZG]

Can't believe you forgot Tom Scott.

[@PointB1ank]

@@DJZG he's temporarily retired 😔 but yeah, he counts as well but in a different vein. Love Tom!

[@siraryx]

Vsauce

[@TheRealSkeletor]

Kurzgesagt.

[@AllAmericanGuyExpert]

Mark Rober

[@UFOBobTV]

I love the fact that a cicada is clinging to your shirt.

[@smartereveryday]

Wait... what?

[@haydenwesley8530]

@@smartereveryday yeah. you knew. funny all the same.

[@sudhirkamathi]

When Destin said, we have to go cicada hunting, I touched my iPad screen where the cicada was on his shirt 😂

[@PaulTomblin]

And then he says he misplaced the one he was going to film. 😅

[@ExtremeODD]

To his shirt, to his ear, on his collar, just hilarious.

[@Strlz_Remtachi]

3:51 "I misplaced the one I had here so we need to go cicada hunting" me, who's been staring at his shirt for a whole minute: yeah I wonder where it went

[@MarineTeen]

Huh I wish this was live so could tell him.

[@pampdsr1]

Yeh funny

[@morticiaaddams7866]

I missed that! Too funny!😅

[@bharatarja2525]

I'm counting how many times he say's "We don't eat them"

[@markliamdairr]

2:35 "What kind of tree is it?" "A Cicada Tree" LMAO that's gold

[@SeanFerree]

😆😆😆😆

[@graog123]

Excellent wordplay

[@infinitytec]

People around where I live keep calling cicadas "locusts" and I used to do that a lot when I was a kid. There was a tree near my house that we saw a bunch of cicada shells (or as we mistakenly called them, "locust shells") on and it became know as the locust tree. I believe it was actually a black locust, and my dad correctly identified it, but the association was made in my brain.

[@Wildman-zh8lg]

Locus a grasshoppers ​@@infinitytec

[@adamb8317]

If I’m not wrong it’s a Boxelder Maple tree, Cicadas and other bugs love to eat them.

[@jakob7270]

Ohhh now i get the pun in the title. „Clickbait“ is literally genius👍

[@BillAnt]

A good kind of clicky bait. hehe Wish he would have asked Ridge to print custom Cicada pictures onto the wallets, I may have considered getting one. ;)

[@cptobvius]

One of my favorite things about cicadas is the reason WHY they hatch in these big periodic broods. It’s called a “Predator satiation strategy” - by hatching all at once in the same area you overwhelm their predators ability to feed on them. All the birds, mammals, lizards, snakes that feed on them will gorge themselves, but barely put a dent in the massive brood that’s been building so the vast majority still get to breed. The predators likely have a very successful year and have more offspring than normal, but the next year that abundant food source isn’t there so their population will return to normal, making it ideal for the cicadas to pop out again 13/17 years later. If they staggered their emergence and breeding their predators would increase in population off of that food source and eat a much larger percentage of them.

[@TriMarkC]

Your guess is right. I watched another YT’r would reviewed those rhythms and the cicadas’ brood cycles outlasted all potential predators’ cycles. And not just predators’ mating cycles but also many of their lifespan cycles too, so predator memory couldn’t impact future generations hunting patterns for cicadas.

[@snipegrzywa]

It's not just the length, but also the fact they are prime numbers. Almost everything in the animal Kingdom is cyclical. By being 2 different prime numbers, they also help against things like migration and other things that doesn't allow the predators to "plan" for the broods ​@@TriMarkC

[@TriMarkC]

@@snipegrzywa Didn’t know that! Thanks!

[@HippieMagic]

It’s even crazier when you realize it’s so overwhelming that even catfish feed top water to eat them.

[@RoadsideCookie]

Do they come out at 13 and 17 years in the same area? If so, why would they both be primes, wouldn't it be at their advantage to come out at the same time to further overload the predators?

[@wdude9997]

Can I just say that the sound design for the slow-mos were excellent

[@raplapla9329]

yep, but an explicit note about it would have been nice as well

[@xXJMatherXx]

@@raplapla9329 He has an entire video about his foley artist and the important work that he does. It's pretty neat.

[@MagesIncorporated]

*Hypothesis:* (please note, I'm not an entomologist, nor an acoustic engineer, merely a guy with a physics degree and too much time on his hands) 3 total tones (we don't see the bottom acknowledged in the spectrum analysis, but looking at the right side, it looks like it's around 100-200 Hz), whose causes are: • 100-200Hz: the sound of the tymbal fully closing hitting the abdomen upon closing (happens every ~6 ms, or ~167Hz) • 1000-1200Hz: the sound of the • 3kHz - 10kHz: the sound of the accordion-like structures being expanded during the reset of the tymbal (~15 folds per tymbal) • In this highest frequency band we see a fade toward ~15kHz, which would make sense considering the variance of size of the folds, and speed at which they contract. With some basic approximations for acoustic resonance with assumptions of a spherical thoracic cavity of r=0.33cm, we get a fundamental frequency around 16kHz. Considering the cicadas frequencies stop shy of this, I wonder what this would suggest about how resonance affects the thoracic cavity and the cicada as a whole. In fact, looking closer at the data at 7:22, we see that there are several "dark" zones in the relevant bands, particularly at ~8kHz, a bit below 5kHz, and potentially one around 800Hz. These seem to roughly match up to the subharmonics of a fundamental around 16kHz (the 1/2, 1/4, and 1/20 subharmonics, respecitvely). The 1/3 subharmonic looks like it may have some constructive interference, which puts me at a bit of a loss, however.

[@rodneymeyer8835]

There is a significant clue in the bandwidth of the 1 kHz tone(~20% bandwidth ) and the 3-10Khx tone(~300% bandwidth). After the tymbal buckles close the membrane vibrates like a guitar string. This leads to a remarkably pure tone with small bandwidth(it is sinosoidal). When the tymbal buckles close it is producing a square wave. When you do an FFT of a square wave, you get a very broad bandwidth. The buckling occurs in 0.1ms or faster which gives the 10KHz upper bound but because it is a square wave you get the broad bandwidth 3-10KHz

[@Kitteh.B]

You missed your explanation for the 1k-1.2kHz band!

[@alekseykuleshov111]

Im barely physics enthusiast but my first thought was to measure different frequencies: single arch buckling vibrating, single arch collapsing and all arches poping back up and try to match them with recorded sound frequencies.

[@spencermonckton6265]

Entomologist hijacking this to add: I've always understood the loudest noise to be the "click" (short buzz) caused by the inward buckling of the membrane (i.e. the full set of ribs). The relaxation and unbuckling is much quieter, but obviously higher frequency. And that initial contraction is STRONG because there's a lever involved inside the cavity. As for the wobble, the flexible membrane of the tymbal is rich in resilin, an elastic protein that can be as much as 97% efficient. That might explain the very high frequency of the wobble, like a super efficient drumskin. Speaking of: when the muscle relaxes, the membrane is pulled back into place by a thick pad of resilin along the top margin of the tymbal. So, that part happens fast but passively - there's less force to overcome.

[@Hobbychemiefreak]

I don't think the high frequencies (3-10kHz) are due to the reset of the tymbal. Firstly, it looks like a rather smooth process. Secondly, the frequency band is matched rather well by the vibration of the membrane after an arch collapses, which has periods of about 0.15-0.25ms. Crucially this is not constant since it depends on how much of the membrane is vibrating, i.e. how many arches have already collapsed. This is visible on the slow-mo footage. The 1kHz band matches how often an arch collapses, this happens a little faster than once every millisecond. I don't understand the low frequencies though. Your suggestion of the tymbal fully closing doesn't appear plausible to me since it doesn't look like that would happen about once every 6ms. Since we can hear distinct chirping sounds a few times a second that would be more like once every couple of 100ms. Possible explanations could be unrelated background noise, or perhaps the whirring of flying cicadas, but that's a bit far fetched.

[@elivaughan1192]

"I found a 10 year old jar of jelly in my fridge." Same man... same.

[@PastorJamesGillespie]

But finding a ten year old carton of milk in your fridge is not the same. The jelly, purple, still after all these years but the Milk, in the ever-expanding jug, displaying the racial fabric of modern society, hues from the palette of life.😂

[@smartereveryday]

My brother

[@stuffffuts3480]

@@PastorJamesGillespie Reminds me of the time I drank an entire glass of milk before realising it was spoilt 😜

[@smolda164L]

but 10 years from now you'd be probably having like second or third fridge and not being able to have these forgotten mysteries in fridge anymore :-D It's like automatic old-food-selection... but if you move them from old fridge to brandnew fridge....hmmmm 😀

[@MyBelch]

@@PastorJamesGillespie also purple.

[@lvachon]

That progressive buckling mechanism reminds me of a bendy straw.

[@smartereveryday]

It absolutely does. It feels like it WANTS to buckle and kind of "cam over" with just a little pull of the muscle internatlly.

[@nickrau1335]

I was on my way to say this! Like a bendy straw with a variable width. Or the ducting on the back of your dryer.

[@mygirldarby]

Thank you! I couldn't think of what it was reminding me of. That's it!

[@MiyagiTheMiata]

I agree lol. I’m curious if the amount of ridges that are buckled allows for a different sound or frequency, or if the cicadas can control it, kind of like words to communicate with other cicadas. I imagine two clicks could mean something different than 5 clicks.

[@dustinclemens2919]

i was just thinking the same thing, my niece has a toy stretch wiener dog with the same "buckling arc mechanism"

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Dude that wobble looks to me like a diaphragm stretched over a resonant cavity. I've explored this before and usually a diaphragm causes the fundamental resonance to decrease in frequency, but in this case since the diaphragm doesn't totally enclose the opening of the cavity it might mean that the mechanical resonance of the arches is exactly equal to the cavity resonance. That would be pretty fascinating. If you calculated the frequency of the wobbles and knew the cavity length it would be pretty straight forward to find out if the two resonances match. Just assuming a 2 inch long cicada with a cavity half its body length the fundamental frequency (assuming it's approximate to a close ended tube, not something more complicated like a helmholtz resonator) should be 3375 hz. I think 2 inches is probably on the large side for a cicada, and the pitch should be higher the smaller they get. You might be able to determine the size distribution of the insects just by analyzing the sound.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

The cavity can also be a half wave or even quarter wave resonator. From the time counter it took a little more than 1ms for an oscillation so it seems to be somewhere around 800-1000 Hz. Also hat sudden snap could produce a sharp spike on the sound and maybe produce higher frequency harmonics.

[@00linered]

Ok, I'm looking it like this: -If you use both hands to hold each end of a very strong spring and then try to compress it together, it is going to want to bend away, and if you tilt your hands it will try to bend the other way. -Each of those arches is engineered to bend and snap back like a spring, and the muscle is just tilting those ends of the spring enough to get them to snap inward. -Therefore, it looks like the wobble is just a result of the mechanical stress in the springs when they snap.

[@LofiTurtle_]

Interesting that your 3375hz number is almost exactly half of the center of the higher frequency band (6-7khz). If that's an accurate approximation, then it seems like we're mainly hearing the first overtone of that cavity. I don't know enough about this kind of physics to know why the fundamental would be absent, but it's interesting

[@xjustinjx]

If it has a cavity radius that's larger than the neck opening radius you have to do helmholtz resonator math to find the fundamental I believe.

[@scotthulslander3409]

[Destin laughing and giggling] has got to be my favorite subtitle that I've seen on the channel so far

[@paulushdk]

8:55 "Oh, they're doin it. They making other cicades" lol

[@Me.is.Malhar]

lmao 4:00 the "misplaced" cicada just chilllin on his collar

[@moos5221]

That had me laughing. I wonder if it's CI though or a real one.

[@Carl_with_a_k_]

18:58 too lmfao it’s just crawling over his shoulder

[@jetegtmeier71]

Good God it was making my skin crawl !!!

[@sirreoser5668]

On his shirt in every shot since the very first shot (it's near his pocket first frame).

[@smartereveryday]

What? Where?

[@jordansickels11]

The way the ridges "pop" in and out reminds me of 3d printed compliant mechanisms. Where the mechanisms have multiple stable states, they can "pop" between. Awesome video!

[@archerkid02]

Was going to suggest the same thing! It's like a light switch, stable in two positions that clicks and makes noise when you flip it. But it's a dozen switches in a row, so applying force flips them progressively until the force is released in this cascade. So maybe the stressed position is a low energy point but unstable so that it's easy to fall out of that into the more stable position.

[@mrjackrabbitslim1]

@@archerkid02 They should rename the insect to cascadas

[@hypervious8878]

I've also heard that is called a 'bi-stable mechanism': only holds a stable form in two positions, so it's intolerant to (quickly avoids/escapes) anywhere in between.

[@ronmancvu]

I've heard those called "flextures."

[@jackpeterson6670]

the easiest way to do something like a bistable mechanism like that, is by puling the corners of the short side of a piece of A4 or letter size paper together(towards you) and pull the other short end towards you. it doesnt have to destinctive stable modes, but a start for getting to understand this part of material physics

[@nated4949]

This video is why I love your channel. I have literally wondered my whole life how they make that sound.

[@Appl_Jax]

Man, that looks wild. Especially with how the Tymbals are moving so smoothly and everything else is stationary. Feels like watching an old school cartoon where you can see the movable items in a scene and the background.

[@AbdulAleemShekhani]

The number of cicadas increasing on Dustin's shirt as the video goes on is HILARIOUS!

[@josiahslack8720]

And how he carefully doesn't acknowledge them.

[@smartereveryday]

@@josiahslack8720 Acknowledge what?

[@TiredMomma]

The one on the ear had me rolling 🤣

[@sdt01o1]

I was waiting for a shot at the end with a Destin-shaped swarm of cicadas 😆

[@x--.]

I had ot keep rewinding because my young daughter kept bursting out laughing and saying to the screen, "it's right there!"

[@timothymonk1356]

Doing some quick maths, the delay between each arch buckling is ~0.9ms, which lines up with the 1,000-1,200Hz band, the oscillation between buckling is every ~0.3ms, which lines up with the lower end of the 3,000-10,000Hz band, and the time between each arch unbuckling is ~0.1ms, which lines up with the top end of the 3,000-10,000Hz band. So I think the buckling process adds a quiet drone to both bands, but the unbuckling is what gives the loudest 5,000-7,000Hz band

[@Blorkus]

I knew someone would do the math, I was half tempted to. Nice 😎

[@smartereveryday]

That's what I saw as well!... but I didn't want to come down and definitevely say it until I spoke to some experts. I was afraid a Cicada expert would pop up and say "oh you've got this totally wrong". I'm not a fan of misinformation and decided to confine this video to observation instead of drawing conclusions about an area I'm not an expert in (acoustics and entomology).

[@bovanshi6564]

Would the completion of one cycle also add another sound at around 200Hz then?

[@Werbel]

@@bovanshi6564 It does, you can see a line on the spectrogram between 100-200Hz.

[@barcodenosebleed5485]

Not that I don't trust math, but I feel like it's backwards. Each buckle occurs periodically at a slower pace, but the sound it produces is a shorter, higher pitched transient. The wobble is much closer to a sine wave. And idk, just listening to the slowmo sound here on my monitors, the wobble is fairly deep. Seems like when sped up the alignment would make more sense that way. But I could be wrong. Pulled up a video of a single cicada and also hear something close to the 200hz mentioned above which seems to correspond to each cycle as if it modulates with the tension of the muscle as a whole. Maybe I can pull the audio off this and bring it in to Audition to manipulate and go the other direction with the single bug clip I found. Building a scaled up mechanism seems like an interesting project.

[@s-smee]

Reminds me of the old cheap metal blinds and running my finger down them. They would bend and rebound back in almost the exact same pattern as shown on the high res. Love this! Thanks @smartereveryday (Destin and team)

[@JakeBourne13]

Who would have thought that cicadas make all that noise with essentially the micro equivalent of a bendy straw 😂

[@SachiJones]

Yes, bendy straws! haha, that's exactly what popped into my mind as well

[@timkvernen4852]

"I come out every 17 years to get my groove on and end up on a notebook listening to a guy talk about the sounds his jalapeno jar lid makes." This is me as a cicada :)

[@gamernerd7139]

For science, bud.. For F'in Science!

[@BobbyDukeArts]

That was awesome. I had no idea the sound they make worked that way. It's so elegant. Excellent video dude!!

[@MisterPulley]

What are you doing here? Aren't you still running form the cops?

[@LieutenantNuggets]

Gordan is an absolute sound engineering genius. This guy deserves more credit from the subscribers for the work he does for this channel

[@smartereveryday]

Gordon's talents and interests are incredibly diverse. He's a good father, composer, loyal friend, game designer, product manager, sound designer... Just an overall good guy. He's a top-shelf human and I'm grateful that our paths crossed so many years ago. Gordon's company website: ashellinthepit.com/

[@cptobvius]

So how was the audio made for the slow mo shots? Is the camera actually picking up that audio? I thought it would be done completely separately but that foley work would be too impressive if done independently. So I guess it is actually picking up that audio?

[@J.C...]

​​@@smartereverydayand he obviously plays guitar. That's always cool in my book 😁 Also... I assume you know scientists you can send this stuff to? You've got to be the first person that's ever done this.

[@2jwalker]

@@cptobviusno he makes all the sound effects for slow mo. those cameras don’t record sound

[@Centermass762]

​​@@cptobviusthe slow-mo sounds are made completely independent from the video from the creators imagination. Real slow-mo sound just sounds like loud static.

[@Machtyn]

Your sound designer was having a LOT of fun in this video!

[@lucklesspanther1929]

Spotting the cicada during the office shots was a super fun game, nice touch 😂😂

[@Sickzero]

This shows exactly why your channel was the first I ever subscribed to back in the day... Making interesting themes easily and entertaining approachable!

[@jamesmnguyen]

11:50 Imagine being abducted by an alien, placed on a giant piece of paper and they start drawing a diagram of your vocal system while explaining it to a camera.

[@kwinzman]

Waiting 13 years underground to mate, just to get abducted....

[@bryanteaston7264]

Well, it would certainly be better than the anal probe.

[@RonRay]

Destin, we now have BOTH types of cicadas. I'm 75 years old and have lived most of it in north Alabama (same as you), and as you will remember, we always had "July Flies" here. Well, that was up until 13 years ago, when the smaller variety moved into north Alabama. The larger ones, that are green and grey, with dark colored eyes, have always been here, and although they emerge every 17 years, they alternate, and emerge every year (in "shifts", you might say), and that is why every year we have the large variety emerge in late July and early August. BUT.. 13 years ago, we had the smaller variety emerge in April/May. They are noticeably different, with red eyes, a smaller body and a higher frequency "song". So, beginning this year, we will be inundated with the small variety every 13 years until they begin rotating in "shifts", like the Larger "July Flies" and emerge every year.

[@TriMarkC]

LOL well, I can check Alabama off my potential retirement state… my wife abhors cicadas! So if they come out annually in AL… nope, she’s out.

[@RonRay]

@@TriMarkC True.. The larger variety emerge every July/August. But they are not as loud and as 'many' as these smaller variety. These smaller size are deafening.

[@trying2understand870]

In south central Mississippi, as a child, (I'm now 65) my Grandfather would have me, my siblings and various cousins, collect the dried husks. He would then dissolve them in acetone. He would use this solution like a varnish on his hand made wood products.

[@johnbaker5199]

this man’s filing system is insane lol the fact you were able to know you had this video from 12 years ago and knew where it was to make this video is just incredible lol

[@GOmegaPHD]

hes a pro he probably has servers on top of servers haha

[@alexcrosse9970]

It’s callled an “unfinished” folder

[@sky01james28]

He has a whole spreadsheet and tupperwares full of HDDs😅. I caught a glimpse in the video where Linus helped him install a server in his closet

[@smu4242]

The increase of cicadas over time is a nice touch that makes me think that Destin is slowly becoming one with the cicadas :D Great video!

[@derek17005]

Gotta say that Cicada mating was not on my after-church bingo card for this Sunday but was thorougly entertained and enlightened. Thanks Destin!

[@sheilagirl70]

Both cicadas love each other very much, which it makes it more tolerable 😂

[@andrewwaters1757]

I’m like 20 minutes from where this video was filmed, and my only input is that, especially in the morning I would hear ONLY the subway sound. I’ve been confused about this for WEEKS because I don’t recall cicadas ever making that sound.

[@lukemullisen7252]

I'm a few hours north of Alabama and I don't remember the subway sound last year - just the hissing. This year we have a ton more, plus the humming subway sound. It used to disturb me when I first moved here and heard it - but now I love it. The trees are singing! Psalm 96

[@sprayberry88]

Same! I told my wife that I don't think I've ever noticed the low roar that is the "subway sound". However, the longer they're around the more they sound like "normal" cicada sounds. Could be something to do with the average age of the cicadas we're hearing at this time? This brood has been fascinating for so many reasons.

[@scottweber8807]

I have heard the periodic cicadas several times. I have never heard the “subway sound” unless the periodic cicadas have hatched that same year.

[@asyouwish3992]

@sprayberry88. Your comment triggered a thought. Made me wonder if the change in sound over time which you described relates somehow to the fact that the cicadas shed their shells? New shells, new sounds? 🤷‍♂️ Thanks for sharing.

[@RobertMoser]

I lived in SE Asia as a kid, and I remember clearly one year that there was a Chosen Tree a lot like your example, so highly saturated with cicadas that it was hard to believe. It was *so loud you couldn't get within 50' of the tree without pain*, and I'm not exaggerating in the least! The Tree happened to be the central point of a small traffic circle, and for the entire mating season, both roads had almost zero traffic during Screamtime. It was that intense. It's so cool after all of these years to be able to see the how of it all. Thanks for sharing this with us!

[@mtrps_]

which country in SEA?

[@RobertMoser]

@@mtrps_ Laos & Thailand. Parents were diplomats. 🙂

[@majorjohnson8001]

4:50 - that sound of subway wheels on the track: That sound. THAT SOUND. Has been driving me absolutely bonkers, because inside my apartment, that sound makes it through the walls, but the clicking doesn't.

[@whirlybird1999]

The way the membrane collapses reminds me of bendable straws.

[@JiveshPant]

9:14 "What are you doing under there"............ Dude they need privacy 😆

[@mobjois]

Outstanding job. When I saw the first slow-mo footage of the ridged membrane snapping in sequence I audibly exclaimed "Aww, no way!" Thanks for this, Destin!

[@natefunk1]

Cicadas are one of the most relaxing sounds I can think of next to rain or waterfalls.

[@GooogleGoglee]

9:10 Dustin pervert version: what are you doing under there 😅😅😅😂

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

me, trying to eat on sunday morning: destin: *shows up close cicada mating*

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

also what you're calling "progressive buckling" looks like an array of compliant mechanisms to me

[@fasfan]

I did not expect Cicada p@rn. Lol

[@adams.6414]

I laughed so hard when it cut back to Destin talking (18:32) and there was a Cicada on his ear. Just more and more started showing up as the video went on. Hahaha. I love your videos so good.

[@WrynnCZ]

As musician I find this very interesting. Thanks Destin. The "approaching train rails sound" in the background sound got me hooked. And the actual shoots of organ witch makes sound? Incredible. I think it vibrates in 3/4 because when every 3rd wave happens, next "click" happens. In other words, you need force of 3 waves to do actual "click" as the force builds up. Its beat generator like no other.

[@TritonTv69420]

It's crazy how many different topics you cover

[@smartereveryday]

I'm grateful to be given the opportunity to explore the world. So fun.

[@evanc.1591]

​​@@smartereverydayHey, the world is incredible, right? Blessed be God!

[@jaerogoth]

18:55 the cicada going for a casual stroll over the shoulder was a nice touch

[@SaddleLight]

The wobble appears to be the cavity resonance frequency. If you picture the timbal like the head of a drum, each buckling causes an impulse to the drum head and it subsequently resonates based on the volume of the chamber and the stiffness of the timbal.

[@TheNewton]

Can't wait for One Punch man to reveal his ultimate technique: Consecutive Progressive Buckling Normal Punches

[@boppins]

"loud and obnoxious" - I love the sound. I've always been attracted to "annoying" sounds, like someone tapping a pencil on a desk, or coke can tab clicking. The cicada sound is relaxing to me.

[@dougg1075]

Me too

[@redfish337]

It's white noise. It'd be a lot more annoying if they stopped and started all the time.

[@davidt3563]

Me too, especially from nature. There is a *whew I'm safe!* Comfort from them. If the Cicadas and crickets are quiet? It's spears up, kids in the cave and fire forward.

[@kevinkuenn5733]

Annual cicadas are white noise, sure. These 13 / 17 year broods are just noise. Where I live they are everywhere, and they are DEAFENING. Like, rock concert loud. I have no doubt that if you measured the decibels outside my home right now, they would register as a level unsafe for human ears. There is nothing relaxing about it.

[@allenshirley1077]

We are hearing the first annual cicadas of summer now. With only a handful, they take turns making noise but later they'll form an orchestra! 😂 When they stop for the night, the frogs start. Nature's sounds is the main reason I enjoy backpacking.

[@jakubdraws395]

I paused the video whilst you were outside to stop the wretched hum of the cicadas, yet the timbal did not cease. Such a sound is an inevitability everywhere this summer.

[@pipecleanermaster]

I have wanted to know how this worked for almost as long as I have understood what insects were and how noise was made. Thank you so so much for making this video!

[@bigmikeosg7753]

Your videos are the best on KZbin. I am blown away by your intelligence and also the way you share it with the audience. Everytime you drop a video I’m always glued to my seat! Thank you Destin!

[@refrsh]

1:42 that cicada crawling on him scared me lol

[@Janduin45]

I too noticed it right around 1:42 and went "uuuuuhuhuhuhu"

[@AbdelkaderBoudih]

That his bionic mic.

[@noahbarkelew6093]

​@@AbdelkaderBoudihLook at his right, upper, collar (on your left).

[@AbdelkaderBoudih]

@@noahbarkelew6093 I know. I guess you didn't get the bionic part.

[@noahbarkelew6093]

@@AbdelkaderBoudih I get what bionics are. I thought you were talking about the actual microphone he is wearing.

[@iamcyndelaq3515]

The Cicadas tymbal reminds me of corrugated straws and accordions. Also, their wings are gorgeous!

[@ZakDub]

I usually fast forward through adds but your cicada addition was the absolute best. Ridge will be happy with your advertisement.

[@sparkbreaker4468]

I think this is such an awesome video, also I thought it was hilarious that whenever they were talking about "progressive buckling" I got an ad for "Progressive" the insurance company.

[@AntLab]

Wow, that’s some amazing videography! So glad you all shot this and shared this insect story with us!

[@NathanielSpencerNomadn8dagr8]

It's like a tambor door from a cabinet. Look at a corner cabinet that hides a mixer or a roll top desk and it makes a version of that sound. It even looks like it. This is awesome! Thank you!

[@williamburchfield3963]

I love that he says, "I've misplaced the one I had. . . ," while it is crawling on his shirt the whole time! I loved watching it crawl around his collar all the way through. Great gag! 😄

[@violajames]

In choir in High School and University, there was this sweet spot when, if the sopranos were in perfect unison we would hear what my choir director called an overtone. It was higher than what we were singing, but it reminds me of this. Maybe it's a similar phenomenon. Also, the cicada's tymbal looks like a mix between an accordion and a bagpige. Fantastic video.

[@drekfletch]

Ooh. Ovetones. I hadn't thought of that. I was joking-thinking the small band was a subharmonice. But what if the narrow band is the main tone and the broad band is the cicadas doing some overtone singing. It's possible for one person to adjust their mouth to create an overtone while singing a lower main tone. Maybe that's what the hollow chamber is for.

[@YashaHarari]

Mongolian throat singers have entered the comments.

[@BrillPappin]

My hypothesis: The subway rail sound is probably the reset sequence, that happens much faster than the buckle sequence.

[@mathozi5384]

It should be the other way around, something fast creates higher frequency

[@BrillPappin]

@@mathozi5384 yes, understood. I would expect the squeal sound would be a higher frequency.

[@solid_sundown]

Anyone else love seeing Destin running around catching Cicadas with a big ol' grin like a 5 year old? haha

[@absolutmauser]

Especially with his enthusiastic giggle 😂

[@crafty_badger]

Ah, sounds of childhood. We have cicadas in south Russia, near Caucasus mountains. I grew up in a summer camp, and during afternoon break when everyone asleep there only silence and dronning of cicadas. Quite comforting tbh. )

[@goodyg]

The way the noise maker looks and works reminds me of a bendy straw.

[@FoxDog1080]

12:00 The cicada looks so confused 18:54 Cicada on an adventure

[@cattywhompus1012]

I literally thought to myself about two or three days ago: “I am really curious about what’s going on with these Cicadas. How do they make that loud noise? I wish they had high speed footage of it. I bet that’d look awesome.” And then proceeded to watch the math of the cicadas and their predator cycles on numberphile or something and forgot about the rest until this video came up right now. I haven’t even watched it yet and just wanna say you nailed it. Most likely with the video, but already just the topic makes me giddy. Haha As a subscriber for some years now I just want to show some appreciation to you. I’m grateful for what you do and who you are. Your curiousity and generally optimistic demeanor have always been something to aspire to on a human level. Thanks for getting in the weeds and using that big wet brain of yours to accurately and concisely convey complex and interesting topics over the years. You’re the best. Also as an NDQ listener, I feel just a better sense of who you are as a person and it makes me as the consumer of your content feel at ease and more engaged knowing I’m listening to someone as decent as yourself and Matt. Anyways. KZbin comments probably not the best way to get you to see this, but felt obliged to rant on the internet for good. Now onto the video. lol.

[@michaelsotomayor5001]

the audio created to these images is insane. Whoever is doing that, big props to you!

[@TheMetalButcher]

It's the guy in the recording studio in the video!

[@smartereveryday]

Gordon's team!

[@piorism]

Putting artificial/foley sound over the slowmo footage really goes against the scientific spirit of the channel though ... I personally find that it gives an overproduced "made for TV" feel to these segments and cheapens them. I don't doubt that it involves a lot of work and talent, but it still feels out of place - at least to me.

[@dbackscott]

Great, now he’s tricked us into admiring bugs.😂

[@YashaHarari]

Cicadas have always been admirable. Soon, AI will convince everyone of that.

[@qlue7881]

Knowing that the Tardis landing sound is house keys rubbed over the strings of a piano So that corresponds very nicely with progressive buckling causing the subway sound

[@WeidauerMelts]

21:31 best shot ever

[@zephdeasey587]

Meme material

[@xxfodxelementxx]

Reminds me of Silence of the Lambs

[@blackshard641]

I applaud your commitment to the decorative cicada bit.

[@freejay6091]

it was indeed freaking me out :D

[@andrewconquest8504]

Their tymbal reminds me of the accordion/collapsible straws you used to get as a kid from certain restaurants/theme parks

[@JaredElliott1]

What's amazing is in only 4 days, 1 Million people have been educated on how cicadas make sound. An incredible accomplishment!

[@deplorablepiratecaptaingunberd]

My chickens certainly loved them

[@t.j1301]

how much do you save on chicken feed because of the cicadas? And because they're eating all of more insects is there a taste difference in the eggs?

[@manamsetty2664]

Did you store those😊

[@BouncingTribbles]

If you want to harvest lots of bugs for your chickens you can collect a lot with a simple set up. You just need a wind tunnel with a light. You put a sack on one end of a pipe and a fan on the other end blowing into the sack. The tunnel has a midpoint entrance with a light in the tube. The idea is that the bugs fly to the light and get blown into the sack. If you put it next to your porch or outdoor seating you'll have to deal with a lot less mosquitoes too.

[@Schmogel92]

These folds are basically "pop tubes" but merged with a membrane which has its own resonance frequency

[@Rosakru]

Here in the north of Thailand, the cicadas can be so loud that it's nearly impossible to hold a conversation or watch a video at normal speaking and listening levels. It's truly amazing.

[@trashtrash2169]

Truly annoying...

[@jimhalloway5299]

The part of the ad read where there's an extreme closeup of Destin's face as a cicada bounces off of it is the funniest thing in the whole video 😄

[@g00dGuY34]

Destin for some reasons I haven't been watching your videos the past year or so. I recently went on a binge and caught up in these last couple of weeks. I've said it many times over the years, but I just want to once again thank you for harboring the curiosity we all have for the world and providing these videos in such an enjoyable format. I often think of the inspiration and lessons for life that your videos manage to provide, whether intentional or not. Much love from a long time viewer.

[@TheCamperBowler]

Unrelated: A SED video on how old fighter planes shot machine guns through their propellers would be incredible. I know the concept isn’t any more complicated than timing a piston engine, but the fact that it worked pretty flawlessly is still insane.

[@emilyelizabethbuchanan998]

Actually the Slo Mo guys did a video on EXACTLY this. All you have to do is search it in the youtube box.

[@TanoLocker]

The best ever Ridge comercial of anytime !!!😂

[@guillaumesonobriand]

Hey Destin, I’m a live sound engineer. I actually think that the wobbles are the 1khz drone and the snaps individually produce a spiky sound around 4khz. Imagine when you stretch a straw that folds like an accordion. While stretching it, you get two sounds, the snaps and the resonance of the tube triggered by the sudden small change in pressure inside the tube created by the folds quickly opening because of a mechanical resistance.

[@maxp3141]

I tried to compute the time-delta between the buckles: on one video it was close to 0.9ms which would produce the ~1.1khz sound. But another video showed something else. I’m not sure if the time counters are accurate or not..

[@maxp3141]

The slower buckles that is.

[@horstnele]

It´s like bending a tape measure backwards! Very interesting Destin

[@jacobsonnen9625]

Who ever designed the sounds for the slomo footage did a phenomenal job and a great video overall as well!

[@osmia]

+

[@Davidzfry]

What is that sound decibel app he was using at 6:00?

[@TheScottTracy]

Videos like this are why standard television is failing. Loved it!

[@NostraDavid2]

Cidadas: * being lovey dovey * Justin: "WHATCHA DOING UNDER THERE!?" 😂

[@cutterpatterson6368]

Hey Destin, Florence native here. This was absolutely fascinating. I’ve never known how they make that noise.

[@bervil]

Don't know if you will see this Destin but i found out 2 hours ago as of the time of writing this comment that my grandfather passed away. my father came over so i wouldn't be alone with the shocking news. my grandfather was a better dad to my father than his own was so the pain is deep. we ended up watching this video as we both are very science minded and your videos have always fascinated us in the past and have enjoyed them for years. it gave us some comfort. though i have a lot of grief to get through and healing to start, i wanted to say thank you for all you do and in my time of need you gave comfort to a hurting man. thank you.

[@9_1.1]

i just want to say, thank you for commenting this. me and my friend made a bet about how long it would take to find this type of comment and i just won 10 bucks.

[@drewb.5419]

Uh doofus it’s in your collar

[@peterpollock1414]

6:10 what is that app??😮