Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-2165692-20140425203121/@comment-29458028-20141001125336

(Facepalm)

1. Hearing impossible because your ears always pick up all sounds, which, by the laws of physics combine into a single wave. The more sounds, the more interferences. Also, you can't ignore a louder sound (e.g. your own breathing, your own heartbeat) for a softer sound (a person's breathing 20 meters away).

It is biologically impossible to ignore a sound much louder than the sound you are trying to hear. Next time, try talking to a friend at a metal concert and ignoring the concert. It will not work.

Due to the inverse square law, as a target is about 200 times further (a falmer's nose is about 10 cm away from the ears, a person can be up to 20 meters or more away), any sound they make is 200^2 = 40,000 times fainter. If that was true, the neuron firing caused by the falmer breathing will depolarize neurons so fast, the Falmer would be deaf.

Even if the falmer could some how pick up all sounds, they'd still need to do a fourier transform with a brain to tell what the sounds are (because high sensitivity = high interference). As of today, a brain is incapable of doing an accurate fourier transform. Doubt the falmer could do it with their brains

2. Smell suffers from the inverse square law and another issue - diffusion of molecules that facilitate smell is very slow, plus there is only one nose, smell is non directional. A dog can find a person when they are near a person, or can pick up a scent trail by following a scent gradient.

We aren't talking about the Falmer coming up to you and hitting you with a sword, it's with a bow instantly when you are very far away. Which means that they cannot follow any scent gradient which will not have built up. Also, they have pinpoint accuracy, so a sense as inaccurate as smell will not allow for such to happen.

(Basic physics and bio. Just because Beth said so in lore does not mean lore = truth. Beth has proven that they occasionally weave lies into lore)