Why does bass have a higher tendency to move objects compared to treble?

[LukeeeeBennet]

So, I'm writing a music A-Level dissertation, but because of my love for physics, I've based it on the physics of sound. I didn't think this should go into the homework section because it's not so much homework that I need help with.

Whilst working through some fundamentals on my board, I puzzled myself as to why bass has a higher tendency to move objects.

For example, if I put a coin on the desk that my speaker is on and keep the speakers at volume x, why will bass cause the coin to vibrate/move and treble not?

Thanks for any help.

 

[xts]

There are three reasons:

1. our ears are less sensitive to bass than to middle-C: to perceive the same intensity of sound bass acoustic waves must have much bigger power;

2. vibrations at the same energy have bigger amplitude for low frequencies. Thus coin vibrating at 20Hz may be seen as vibrating, but the wine glass vibrating at 5,000Hz make no visual effect;

3. objects like coin on a table have their resonance frequencies rather low.