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adam asked in Science & MathematicsPhysics · 6 years ago

Would a high decibel, with a low Hertz cause damage?

Let's say I owned a special sound track. This special track, emits a frequency of around 5 - 10 Hz, a sound that probably can't be heard. But at the same time, emits 150dB or so?

First question, would this even work? Secondly, if it did, what would happen to someone if they were to hear it?

Update:

Okay, maybe not 5-10, but more around 5-60 Hz.

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  • 6 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Forget the update.

    Very low frequencies need very large air movement to transmit energy.

    It would be very difficult to get any form of loudspeaker that could create this amount of motion at these frequencies.

    If it could be done then the pressure wave would be likely to vibrate the whole human body.

    The reason that we can hear high frequencies is that the body has a high mass and cannot respond by moving to the air pressure wave.

    Yet the light eardrums can.

    At very low frequencies the body would tend to move as much as the eardrums.

    But the body is not a solid object. If the pressure on one side was great enough then it would compress inwards before the far side of the body moved.

    In other words there would be compression / rarefaction of the internal organs.

    I have not worked out what air pressure would be involved at 150 dB at 5 Hz

    But remember that it is 10 ^5 times greater than the pressure at 100 dB and this is a very large increase on what is already a very loud noise.

  • 6 years ago

    Try doing a search on "infrasound weapons" and judge for yourself. There has reputedly been a lot of research done on such things for military and riot-control purposes.

    Many years ago there was an item on TV about some French guys who had a truck with a small jet engine connected to a giant whistle-thing.

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