# Can you kill someone in a 'sound bath'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2020, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770 "2020-05-31T03:22:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/1 "2020-05-31T03:22:28Z")
Blacklist, Se 7, ep 13 has a serial killer who kills people by forcing them to sit in a tub with weird fluid and then pumps in sound with powerful low frequency speakers and kills them. COULD that be done? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/2 "2020-05-31T04:14:33Z")
Don’t see why not. [They break up kidney stones with sound](https://www.healthline.com/health/lithotripsy). And apparently that medical use has the potential to fuck you up. You could pulp anything inside you wanted to, with the right hardware. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/3 "2020-05-31T04:23:37Z")
Would it be this, turned up to 11?: [Brown note - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/4 "2020-05-31T04:35:13Z")
There’s some information here. > **[Sonic weapon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon)** > > Sonic and ultrasonic weapons (USW) are weapons of various types that use sound to injure or incapacitate an opponent. Some sonic weapons make a focused beam of sound or of ultrasound; others produce an area field of sound. As of 2023\[update\] military and police forces make some limited use of sonic weapons. > Extremely high-power sound waves can disrupt or destroy the eardrums of a target and cause severe pain or disorientation. This is usually sufficient to incapacitate a person. Less powerful so... Most of the weapons described here are non-lethal alternatives, although destroying the eardrums doesn’t seem like a fun idea\*. There’s no mention of the specifics of any intentionally lethal sonic weapon actually in use, but - > [@](#): > > Researchers found that low frequency sonar exposure could result in significant cavitations, hypothermia, and tissue shearing. No follow up experiments were recommended. Tests performed on mice show the threshold for both lung and liver damage occurs at about 184 dB. Damage increases rapidly as intensity is increased. \*It hertz. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/5 "2020-05-31T04:47:39Z")
I remember an article about suicide bombers in Israel (written in the months prior to 9/11) that stuck with me that described bombing victims who look perfectly intact on the outside, but on autopsy it is revealed that their internal organs have been destroyed by the shockwave, which is essentially a really loud sound. (The “being a sound” part is from me, not the article.) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/6 "2020-05-31T04:54:54Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I remember an article about suicide bombers in Israel (written in the months prior to 9/11) that stuck with me that described bombing victims who look perfectly intact on the outside, but on autopsy it is revealed that their internal organs have been destroyed by the shockwave, which is essentially a really loud sound. (The “being a sound” part is from me, not the article.) I belive that a shock wave and a blast wave travel supersonically, so they are not technically acoustic waves. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/7 "2020-05-31T06:48:39Z")
Dolphins can stun or even kill fish with sound, don’t see why sonic weapons aren’t possible. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/8 "2020-05-31T07:25:11Z")
Hypothermia? How do sound waves lower body temperature? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/9 "2020-05-31T08:29:17Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Blacklist, Se 7, ep 13 has a serial killer who kills people by forcing them to sit in a tub with weird fluid and then pumps in sound with powerful low frequency speakers and kills them. > > COULD that be done? Sure. In fact plain old water would be perfectly workable rather than any “weird fluid”; water is much better at conducting sound than air. [Sonar injures and possibly kills wildlife](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-military-sonar-kill/), and that’s by accident and at long range. Point blank and with the intent to cause harm would pretty much have to be worse. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/10 "2020-05-31T11:25:54Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Hypothermia? How do sound waves lower body temperature? Like this: > **[Thermoacoustic heat engine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoacoustic_heat_engine)** > > Thermoacoustic engines (sometimes called "TA engines") are thermoacoustic devices which use high-amplitude sound waves to pump heat from one place to another (this requires work, which is provided by the loudspeaker) or use a heat difference to produce work in the form of sound waves (these waves can then be converted into electrical current the same way as a microphone does). > These devices can be designed to use either a standing wave or a travelling wave. > Compared to vapor refrigerators, the... Seriously—thermoacoustic refrigerators are a thing, and their Carnot efficiency isn’t terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/11 "2020-05-31T16:56:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I remember an article about suicide bombers in Israel (written in the months prior to 9/11) that stuck with me that described bombing victims who look perfectly intact on the outside, but on autopsy it is revealed that their internal organs have been destroyed by the shockwave, which is essentially a really loud sound. (The “being a sound” part is from me, not the article.) I’ve read similar reports of some Londoners in bomb shelters during the Blitz, and of soldiers near large explosions in relatively confined places in wars since. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-kill-someone-in-a-sound-bath/854770/12 "2020-05-31T19:36:04Z")
Ahhh, they’re 1920’s-style “deaf rays”.