[HAPS-L] Your voice when you have a cold

[Ken Saladin <ksaladin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

HAPSters,

A possibly dubious bit of traditional wisdom is that the reason your voice 
changes when you have a cold is that mucus obstructs the travel of sound 
waves into the paranasal sinuses and back, thus impeding the role of the 
sinuses as resonating chambers.

I'm not so sure I buy that. Are the canals between the nasal cavity and the 
sinuses really wide enough (or patent enough) for significant conduction of 
sound waves? Just how wide are their apertures? (Gray's doesn't say.) 
Couldn't the sinuses act as resonating chambers by means of bone conduction 
of sound to and from the chambers? In a cold, couldn't the swelling of the 
nasal mucosa itself and congestion of the nasal cavity suffice to explain 
the change in voice?

Ken


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