Humpty-Dumpty Effect: Acoustically, people resemble large eggs

Using a sound-based scanning technique to determine the shapes of moving creatures and other objects, an international team of scientists has found that the human form bounces sound waves as if each person were a huge, elongated chicken egg.

This new acoustic portrait of people as a hard ellipsoid may aid designers of concert halls and other venues where acoustics are of paramount concern, says Stéphane G.