Sound Death

Algren

Knowing that its possible to break a glass if you emit a loud sound at its resonant frequency.

If you do the same for Human skulls, there will not only be a sound sleep, but a sound death too. Is that possible?

tasp77

As I recall, some soldiers were found killed at the battle of Gettysburg and their bodies were unmarked. It was concluded the concussion from the shells used was sufficiently intense to have killed them. As for the complication of setting up a resonance with various body structures, it apparently is not necessary if all you want is fatal effects.

D H

Barry Manilow as a weapon of mass distraction: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29474213.../#.TxBWSJjK0po.

rollcast

If you have a sound wave which is of a high enough amplitude, the pressure changes changes between the high and low pressure points on the wave would in effect almost hit you like a shockwave from a bomb blast and cause concussion damage.

Infact sound is used to destroy/break cells in labs. Not sure on the exact method but basically the cells are suspended in a solution and then a high frequency sound wave is passed through the solution which causes the cells to break up. Althought this wouldn't occur in air as air doesn't conduct sound as well as a liquid would.

Prehaps if you put the person into a large swimming pool and then played your very loud sound through underwater speakers then the sound waves would propagate well enough to cause damage. Although more likely they will shake even the best of the best of speakers to bits in seconds.

jedishrfu

relating to sound death theres another interesting quirk where historians and scientists have said battles were lost due to sound not being heard or interpretted wrongly:

http://scvcamp868.webstarts.com/uplo...es_D__Ross.pdf

and on sound refraction:

http://www.kettering.edu/physics/dru...t/refract.html

jedishrfu

Some farmers used to fish by throwing dynamite into a pond stunning/killing the fish to save on worms.

Algren

Well interesting, and concussion damage too.

Can there be even mis-interpretation of EM waves?

and, why cant we just fly a sound-absorbing plane with a large speaker over the enemy side and shake them to bits? Along with a nullifying wave so that those waves to not hit their own base?

phinds

Your question seems to be specifically about resonant frequencies but the answers above have all been about concussive effects which is not the same thing. As far as I know, the human skull does not have a resonant frequency the way a glass goblet or a pane of glass does. Glass in complex configurations will not (necessarily) have a resonant frequency.

The human sphincter muscle, on the other hand, DOES have a resonant frequency, which is somewhere around 6Hz for most people. SO ... although you can't likely kill anyone by getting a resonant frequency will their skull, you COULD make them mess their pants.

Algren

Lol, although you can check this:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1073503

I dont know if its a joke or not.

Drakkith

I'm very skeptical of this...

phinds

I have no expertise on this, I just read about it many years ago where a physics prof did a demo in class and the bathroom became VERY crowded before the demo was over. I know this sounds a bit unlikely, I just remember that there was SOME reason, I no longer remember what, that made me take it seriously.

Drakkith

Well, lets save that topic for another day and the Skeptics forum lol.