Australian Man Crowned World’s Loudest Person After Shouting At Jet Takeoff Levels
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Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Flipboard Bluesky Email Copy Link Home → Science → News An Australian town crier broke a 30-year shouting record with a 122.4-decibel cry of “now.” Inside a Canberra radio studio on May 2, the 58-year-old Australian air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier took a breath and shouted “now” with such force that a professional acoustic engineer recorded it at 122.4 decibels.
Guinness World Records has now recognized the cry as the loudest shout by a person. It was louder than a chainsaw, close to the roar of an ambulance siren at close range, and in the same rough sound neighborhood as a jet aircraft taking off. It also edged past the previous record holder: the 121.7-decibel shout of “quiet” by Annalisa Flanagan, a Northern Irish schoolteacher, in 1994.
Although the difference sounds tiny, it was not. Decibels climb logarithmically, meaning a small numerical increase can represent a meaningful jump in sound energy. McGrail-Bateup’s shout carried about 17 percent more sound energy than Flanagan’s old mark.
For the human ear, both would simply register as painfully, absurdly loud. McGrail-Bateup chose the shout “now” for his Guinness World Records attempt with much consideration. According to AP, he experimented with several words before settling on the short, explosive syllable.
It was short, sharp and easy to drive out in a single burst. The attempt took seven tries. McGrail-Bateup says this is not something you can really train for.
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