I was half asleep and there was the TV version of “click bait” on, and one segment was about some breakdancer (a woman, in NYC, or somewhere around there) that was more-or-less killed by “high volume”. Some kind of loud music or specific frequency caused her to stoke out.
Here is why I ask: I like my music LOUD. I mean **LOUD. **
Every now and then, especially when listening to certain songs, my scalp will tingle, and goosebumps will appear on my arms and elsewhere. And when I say tingle, I mean that shit is wriggling like a snake! Damn near like a seizure!
Is it the volume or a specific “sound”? I know the dogs will go crazy if I play *Maggot Brain *and start howling (they also don’t like Dogs by Pink Floyd or Jane’s Addiction)
Am I at risk for death/suicide by Boston, Cheap Trick, Drive-By Truckers, Yes or Rush? Certainly better than cancer…
Mods, if this has no “real” answer, or you feel it should go somewhere else, feel free!
Searching for “death by loud noise” will get you the details but the short answer is no.
Sonic weapons exist, but they’re very specialized and not something you are ever likely to encounter.
As someone who spent several years engineering in a sound studio, where LOUD is the norm, I would suggest that you are setting yourself up for hearing loss later in life. Hearing aids are a drag, trust me, I know.
Actually, *I have! *I used to work for some planar transducer wonks that developed a "sonic laser’, so-to-speak.
That was fucking cool! You could point it a mile away, and you would be convinced the target was the source of the sound. Freaky. They were working for the Navy at the time.
True - although in the case of explosions, isn’t it the *hypersonic *shock wave that does the damage. What’s the worst damage that can be done by a non-hypersonic wave in air?
At some level sound stops being “sound” and becomes aggressive pressure fluctuations. Which can get strong enough to shake you into a concussion or worse. I’m thinking the kind of “noise” you get standing next to a rocket ship launch.
The difference is an explosion is one short sharp pressure wave, plus whatever reflections occur. Something like a rocket engine is a continuous oscillation of immense force.
The threshold for a fatal sound level (roughly 200 db) was discussed by Cecil Adams here:
The Saturn V moon rocket is sometimes described as producing 204 db, however the actual measurement was apparently on a single F-1 engine mounted on a test stand in 1964 before the entire five-engine vehicle flew. This document says it was equivalent to 40 million watts of acoustic energy. They mention taking sound spectral measurements at 1,000 ft distance and this could imply the sound pressure measurement was taken there, but it doesn’t clearly say: