The worst word you can say in a crowded room right now, study says
A new study shows that there may be a correlation between the choice of words and the propagation of COVID.
The words you use matter, even in terms of public health. TheCoronavirus can spread in different waysAnd speak is just one of them. However, all words do not have the same potential to spread Covid when someone speaks. According to a recent study, the worst word you could say in a crowded room is a word that starts with the letter "P", like "puff" or "picked". Read on why, and for more information on how the conversation can transmit coronavirus, discover howThe way the Americans speak can have made Covid so worse.
Researchers for the new study, published on September 25 in theActs of the National Academy of Sciences, found thisNormal conversations in an interior space could extend the coronavirus at least as far as, if not further than the social distancing guidelines recommend.
"People should recognize thatThey have an effect around them, "Howard Stone, PHD, one of the researchers of the study and the Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace at the University of Princeton, said in the Declaration. "If you talk for 30 seconds in a loud voice, you will project an aerosol with more than six feet in the direction of your interlocutor."
The researchers used a high-speed camera to film the movement of tiny droplets being propagated from a person who speaks several different phrases - succinct statements, like "we will beat the coronavirus", nursery rhymes, like "Peter Piper chose a Piccasse "and" sing a song of Sixpence. "
The study concluded thatSome statements have made much more impact that others. The researchers stated that the sound of the letter "p" creates puffs of air in front of the speaker, while an entire statement using "P" sounds, such as the alliterative "Peter Piper chose a peck ", created what researchers called an integer" brew train. "
"The phonetic characteristics introduce the complexity of the dynamics of air flows and plosif sounds, such as" P ", produce intense vortal structures that behave like" puffs "and reach a rapidly one meter", wrote researchers in their study. "However, the word, corresponding to a train of such puffs, creates a conical, turbulent flow, type jet and easily produced transport over two meters in 30 seconds of conversation."
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This is particularly troubling given the existingGuidelines on social distancing in most countries. In the United Kingdom, most guidelines adopt a measure of social distancing of one meter and, in the United States, most of the guidelines follow the six-foot rule, which is just shy two meters. These two are shorter than the likely length of the "flow similar to a jet" a puff train of a phrase filled with "p" sounds could create in a room.
Fortunately, whileSocial distancing can not be so useful In these circumstances, the masks always seem to be. The researchers noted that the masks played a vital role in disrupting the ability of the droplets of a speaker to project more than a foot, much less than two meters.
"The masks really cut this flow tremendously," said the stone. "This identifies why (most) masks play a big role. They cut everything." And for more information on how coronaviruses can be transmitted,New evidence shows how Covid can spread outdoors.