If Pokemon Were Real... 9/9/14

As a person with an unhealthy quantity of wandering thought, I often ponder, "What if Pokemon actually existed?" Sadly this concept is very far-fetched, and perhaps for a good reason,  but why wouldn't we want Pokemon to be real? Well, that's exactly what I set out to discover: why we might not quite really want to walk among Pokemon. We'll start today with our very first (randomly selected) subject....

WHISMUR

The Whisper Pokemon

2'00"
39.5 lbs

"Its cries equal a jet plane in volume. It inhales through its ear canals. Because of this system, it can cry continually without having to catch its breath."

-Pokemon Emerald 

"Usually, its cries are like quiet murmurs. If frightened, it shrieks at the same volume as a jet plane."

-Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

What a baby! Look at this cutey patootie! How could you not want to have your own pet whismur; a cutie purple-y babycake with baby-like qualities? These baby-like qualities might be for the best because, as most might speculate, Whismur cries. Not your average cry, oh no, Whismur has a very special ability within its vocal chords; volume.

Its pokedex entry often states that it can cry as loud as a jet plane. But exactly how loud is a jet plane? To understand volume we must have a base unit of measurement, the most common choice being decibels. Decibels (dB) are used to measure the intensity of a sound. Starting at 0dB, the sound of the most barely audible sound, things move up exponentially from there. 10dB, about the volume of breathing, is 10 times louder than 0dB, and 20dB, the volume of a whisper, is 100 times louder than 0dB. An average conversation is about 60dB, 10,000 times louder than a whisper. So how loud exactly is a jet plane engine using this scale? 150dB is the approximate volume of a jet plane engine. That's 10,000,000,000,000, ten trillion times louder than a whisper. Something that loud will cause the eardrum to instantly rupture.

As unpleasant as eardrum rupture sounds (pun intended), what does the rupturing of eardrums pertain to? Often when people rupture their eardrums they don't even notice at first. The most common cause of a ruptured eardrum is actually from cleaning with q-tips and accidentally pressuring the eardrum too much. Even if caused by aggressive cotton-swabbing or a close encounter with a friendly jet, the symptoms are not fun. These symptoms include sharp ear pains, a discharge from the ear, ear noise/buzzing, weakness, dizziness, ear infections, or in the worst case, partial or full hearing loss. As awful as this sound, a ruptured eardrum will often heal itself within about 3 months. Not the worst, but still pretty uncomfortable while lasts.

Whismur aren't the most deadly or powerful of Pokemon. In fact it's so cute you wouldn't think it could even hurt a fly, but it sure can deafen one. 

What. A. Cutie.

Sources:
research: http://www.webmd.com/ http://www.industrialnoisecontrol.com/comparative-noise-examples.htm  http://science.howstuffworks.com/question124.htm  http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Whismur_(Pok%C3%A9mon)

pictures: http://pldh.net/dex/sprites/whismur (c) The Pokemon Company