"white noise" means what?

[tien-sung]

"I used to sleep next to a generator during the war so when I came back home, I had to sleep near a fan because I was used to the white noise - that drove my wife crazy!" he says.

The above sentence was quoted from today's BBC NEWS .

Could you please tell me what does " white noise " mean? Thank you.


Tien-sung

From Taiwan

[konungursvia]

It is a waveform variation in air pressure that is so homogenous or so faint that the ear doesn't really notice it, or stops noticing it after a time.

[ooohlala]

Um, white noise is basically what you get when you tune your radio to a frequency that does not receive any radio signals. That's what it's supposed to sound like.

[Rover_KE]

It's a sort of hissing noise.

Rover

[SoothingDave]

Think of the sound of a fan or an air conditioner, always running in the background. That's white noise. You become used to it as part of the normal sound in your environment.


If you suddenly have to try to sleep with no fan, it seems too quiet. Every little noise is noticeable.