Does the transporter make a sound in-universe?

[NCC-73515]

Boimler had a transporter accident that made him ring constantly and people got annoyed until T'Ana made it stop

 

[publiusr]

In the novel The Final Reflection, the Klingons are weirded out that Federation transporters make a noise. In TOS the one time we see a Klingon transporter it's silent (although accompanied by a musical sting)

Very fast too…a bit dangerous as well.

Now, one would think a brief low pressure area would be made.

Here a tornado dissipates and the air rushes back to fill the void…slow thunder you might call it:

https://stormtrack.org/community/threads/the-most-unusual-tornado-sound-ive-ever-heard.31930/

So even if the transport is silent, a brief air current may give it away, if not adjusted for.

 

[at Quark's]

Even if the transporter made a sound, you'd think the Federation and other powers would also invest in developing a 'stealth transporter', a transporter that doesn't give away its action by sound (or unnecessary visuals, or other detectable emissions on the spectrum). Might give a nice tactical advantage in tense situations, even if only for a few seconds.

 

[F. King Daniel]

By the 30th century, Daniels and his people had definitely perfected stealth beaming. You didn't even realise you'd been moved until the musical sting!

 

[Christopher]

Even if the transporter made a sound, you'd think the Federation and other powers would also invest in developing a 'stealth transporter', a transporter that doesn't give away its action by sound (or unnecessary visuals, or other detectable emissions on the spectrum). Might give a nice tactical advantage in tense situations, even if only for a few seconds.

Which may be why Klingon transporters were silent in TOS.

 

[trekfan_1]

If a transporter beams equipment into a forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?

The answer is the same as the tree. The "conditions" of its sound is *generated* but that sound is only realized if there's someone or something there that receives it. I was never fooled or perplexed by this mind experiment.

 

[1001001]

The answer is the same as the tree. The "conditions" of its sound is *generated* but that sound is only realized if there's someone or something there that receives it. I was never fooled or perplexed by this mind experiment.

Well played.

 

[HIjol]

The answer is the same as the tree. The "conditions" of its sound is *generated* but that sound is only realized if there's someone or something there that receives it. I was never fooled or perplexed by this mind experiment.

Unless the equipment beams into the forest of the Tree of Souls, in which case the tendrils and root system would…ah, crap!…whoops, wrong universe…

Well played.

Indeed!

 

[publiusr]

Some even claim to hear meteors…
https://earthsky.org/space/whoosh-can-you-hear-meteors-streak-past/

 

[Paul Weaver]

When I've seen productions that don't use sound in space, like Firefly or Cuaron's Gravity, I actually find the lack of sound effects makes them more potent, not less.

The Kelvin scenes in ‘09 come to mind - the transition from the sound and chaos into silence as a crew member was blasted into space was a really noticeable scene to me.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If we were talking about the kind of instant teleportation that advanced aliens often used on TOS, like the Metrons or Trelane teleporting Kirk off the bridge in a jump cut, there would logically be a loud thunderclap-type sound as the air rushed into the vacant space, or as the air at the destination was forced out by the subject's arrival (equivalent to how the sound of thunder is created by the intense heat of a lightning bolt causing the air to expand abruptly).

I saw that in a comic once.

I forget which comic, specifically, it was, but it concerned an alien animal which looked vaguely like a horse (except it had one single limb, instead of four legs) which could instantly teleport from one place to another. Whenever it appeared in a place, there was a loud explosion as it displaced the air that was in that place. Along with a sonic shockwave so powerful it caused earthquakes.

 

[fireproof78]

The answer is the same as the tree. The "conditions" of its sound is *generated* but that sound is only realized if there's someone or something there that receives it. I was never fooled or perplexed by this mind experiment.

Mostly because it's dumb.

 

[DonIago]

Off-topic, but is Nightcrawler's bamf! due to air displacement then, or is the sound always created as part of his own teleportation process?

ETA: According to Wikipedia it is the sound of the air being displaced, not a sound inherent to his teleportation.

 

[Christopher]

Off-topic, but is Nightcrawler's bamf! due to air displacement then, or is the sound always created as part of his own teleportation process?

Definitely air displacement. Claremont and Byrne were pretty good at working some semi-credible science into their X-Men stuff, like remembering that Nightcrawler's momentum was conserved when he teleported.

 

[DonIago]

^Yeah, I was reading his entry on Wikipedia and it mentioned that. He was always one of my favorite mutants.

Now I'm imagining Star Trek transporters making bamf noises.

 

[Tosk]

If Nightcrawler's powers don't create any sound at all on their own, then is it kind of weird that we hear the same bamf when he both leaves and arrives? Would the sound of air rushing in to fill a void really sound exactly the same as air being compressed to make space? And shouldn't the area in which the bamf takes place affect the sound? Bamfing into an open field would cause less relative compression that into a car, for instance? And how come the sound is the same when he also takes another person with him?

And is the sound known as bamf due to Nightcrawler being a BAMF?

I must know!

 

[DonIago]

Maybe it should be a fmab when he leaves?

 

[Christopher]

If Nightcrawler's powers don't create any sound at all on their own, then is it kind of weird that we hear the same bamf when he both leaves and arrives? Would the sound of air rushing in to fill a void really sound exactly the same as air being compressed to make space? And shouldn't the area in which the bamf takes place affect the sound? Bamfing into an open field would cause less relative compression that into a car, for instance? And how come the sound is the same when he also takes another person with him?

I assume that "BAMF" is the onomatopoeia for a range of distinct air-displacement noises of varying intensity, pitch, etc., in the same way that you can have a large boom or a small boom.

Really, I'm not sure the sound of air being instantaneously forced outward would be that different from the sound of air instantaneously rushing inward. Both would create a sonic shock wave in a similar way.

And is the sound known as bamf due to Nightcrawler being a BAMF?

As a joke, sure, if you like. But in reality, from what I can find, the BAMF acronym didn't catch on until the past decade (though the full phrase dates from the 1970s), so it's just a coincidence.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

I assume that "BAMF" is the onomatopoeia for a range of distinct air-displacement noises of varying intensity, pitch, etc., in the same way that you can have a large boom or a small boom.

Really, I'm not sure the sound of air being instantaneously forced outward would be that different from the sound of air instantaneously rushing inward. Both would create a sonic shock wave in a similar way.

As a joke, sure, if you like. But in reality, from what I can find, the BAMF acronym didn't catch on until the past decade (though the full phrase dates from the 1970s), so it's just a coincidence.

Whether Chris Claremont invented the term or not, my all-time favorite BAMF will always be from DOOMSDAY MACHINE. (Act Four.)*

(*the second one.(:)

 

[Destructor]

In the novel The Final Reflection, the Klingons are weirded out that Federation transporters make a noise. In TOS the one time we see a Klingon transporter it's silent (although accompanied by a musical sting)

In 'Blakes Seven', whenever someone teleported there was a very specific musical sting which my brother and I associated so strongly with 'beaming' that whenever we beamed in play we'd sing the little "Bum bum badda da dum!" sting, as though it was in-world.