Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => New Theories => Topic started by: TheLegionnaire on 04/04/2008 20:37:45
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So, I've been thinking of this for awhile and I really wonder if something like this would be possible.
Basically, imagine strips of audio speakers, perhaps small sturdy speakers in some sort of skinny rectangular structure that lie on the floor. Now these speakers would be set up to blast an un-audible tone (in the high frequencies) at incredible volumes, like music venue volumes. It would be pointed at the ceiling. Now basically what I'm asking, is if you took these devices and made a square on the floor with them, and stood inside the square, would it make a sound barrier? Could the weaker larger waves of normal sound and music make it's way through this inaudible wall of high frequency waves?
Heres a diagram I made in paint:
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi2.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy47%2FLofiLegionnaire%2Ftheory.jpg&hash=cfbc31a0b44c3931df328288c4ab1dbb)
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What a great question !
I wish I knew an answer.....but WELCOME TheLegionnaire.
I'm sure you'll get some responses !!...must warn you though...it's the dawn of the weekend and things can get rather quiet here.....I hope I'm proven wrong !
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I don't think it would form a barrier. We are talking pushing air particle to make collisions that move apart and collide again (contraction and rarefraction.) The lower frequency sound would surely interfer with the high frequency vibrations to cause some sort of noise.
NASA use water as a barrier between the shuttle engines and the launch pad so that it doesn't shake to bits. I think you need a none air barrier.
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I'm now not sure that I'm right. I've been thinking about this so much last night that I've had to join the insomnia support group lot.
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You can't make a barrier but you can make a nulling device that broadcasts "anti sound" that effectively cancels out the sound from the outside by emitting waves in antiphase to the sound. however this will only work over a relatively small area and works best with longer wavelength lower frequency sounds. It has been used to make the insides of cars quieter.
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I didn't think anti-phasing worked on this type of wave. You learn something new every day. Then you dye taking it all with yeh!
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Very good question!! I would have thought it would work, but then I am no good at this stuff!!
Welcome to the Forum [:)]
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I think it could work if the intensity of the sound in the wall was so great as to cause substantial changes in the speed of sound in the vicinity. Probably this would not actually block the sound coming in from the outside, but could disrupt it significantly; but at those levels of sound, you could have lots of other effects (not all of them being particularly healthy to be around - the fact that your ears do not hear the sound does not mean it cannot have an effect on you). You would also be setting up complex interference patterns from the sound from the speakers in the square, so you will have lots of nulls and highs is various parts of the square.
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I think it could work if the intensity of the sound in the wall was so great as to cause substantial changes in the speed of sound in the vicinity. Probably this would not actually block the sound coming in from the outside, but could disrupt it significantly; but at those levels of sound, you could have lots of other effects (not all of them being particularly healthy to be around - the fact that your ears do not hear the sound does not mean it cannot have an effect on you). You would also be setting up complex interference patterns from the sound from the speakers in the square, so you will have lots of nulls and highs is various parts of the square.
What effect would this have then? Would our ears be painful?? Would it pop?? Or would we become deaf at an earlier stage..
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I suspect that the infrasound would affect it, though I cannot say for sure if it would stop it. If you want information regarding the use of directed sound, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directional_Sound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directional_Sound)
What effect would this have then? Would our ears be painful?? Would it pop?? Or would we become deaf at an earlier stage..
Infrasound can indeed be dangerous, as this website explains: http://www.lowertheboom.org/trice/infrasound.htm
Since we're talking about loud sound, I've been wondering about something myself.
Since sound waves are waves of pressure, and high pressure can be used to convert liquids into solids, would a sufficiently loud sound wave underwater create a "wall" of high-pressure ice as it progressed? Would something similar occur in air, in that high pressure would convert the gaseous air into liquified air within the vicinity of the wave? At room temperature, it might form a supercritical fluid instead, I'd need to check on that.