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Engineering an Answer to Motion Sickness
Sep 21 2007 by Emily Hansen
9/21/2007
Mom Has Visions of "Pukeless Sedan"
Anyone who's gone on a road trip with children knows that if a kiddo calls out from the backseat, "I feel like I'm going to throw up," you should pull over fast to avoid a disgusting cleanup job. Yes, I speak from experience: The barf warning is not one to ponder — it requires immediate action.
Because I truly fear vomit, I'm a bit of a freak about making my kids look out the front window on road trips. I also have them roll down the windows at even the slightest twinge of nausea. These measures have worked reasonably well, but are obviously not perfect.
After a tip from the chief mama here at Mother Proof, I did some research and learned about a phenomenon called "low-frequency boom." Bear with me if that last phrase made your eyes glaze over; I'm not going to geek out on you here, I just want to give you the 411 on what I now refer to as "barf boom."
When riding in a car, the vibration of the road and the air moving within the interior emit a sound that's so low it is unperceivable to human ears. We're bombarded by sound waves that can potentially affect us physically, and one of the physical effects noted in studies on motion sickness on airplanes and trains is nausea. Does this explain why a car that's quiet and smooth makes me feel good and one that's rough and noisy doesn't? It definitely explains why after just a few minutes of cranking up the bass in my car's stereo system to get my groove on I start feeling a little bizarre and have to crank it back down again.
I know car manufacturers spend big money to improve what they call the "noise, vibration and harshness" of each car. Wouldn't it be great if they could come up with a "pukeless sedan"? The potential is huge � imagine being able to take road trips without having to fumigate the car along the way. Now, in the meantime, if they could just find a way to convert puke into biodiesel...
