Is there or is it possible to create a liquid (or viscous material) which is reactive to sound? I mean by this, could a liquid be made to turn solid at the application of a particular frequency or resonance of sound?
I haven’t really though of a practical application for such an invention , but the reason I thought of it for those interested is such: I was dreaming of a wax-like material which could be placed n your ears and when I person who you dislike begins to talk, the wax would turn solid and disable your hearing. Stupid, I know.
Anyhow, would it be possible to create such a state changing reactive substance?
I can’t answer whether it could be done with a single uniform material, but it seems that it would be possible if you allow the inclusion of a little actuator device, which could be some sort of piezo-electric affair.
I’m not sure whether such a state-changing material would have significantly different sound transmission properties in each of its states though.
A better device - and, in my mind, a bit more practical - would be a device that detects sound waves (gee, they can call it a “microphone”), attach it to a computer that calculates both the source of the sound and the frequency/wavelength/amplitude/whatever, and then, using some really small sound emitters (we can call them “speakers”), emits a counter-wave to that sound.
You’d need a helluva computer to do this, of course, and some ultra-sensitive equipment…
Ok. Forget about the silly use of the material I forwarded in the OP. The question was really about the possibility of sound affecting materials and their molecular make-up.
I have seen massive LCD screens used in place of vision panels & blinds in offices. To ‘close the blinds’ a switch was thrown to darken the entire wall of screens. (Using the same technology as in digital watch faces). Obviously this change of state in LCD is caused by adding a flow of current.
Could this ever be achieved by directly applying particular sounds?
You mean, basically, phase-cancellation so you would end up with silence? They use a version of this technology on commercial aircraft. Or so my physics teacher has told me. Obviously, it’s not perfect, and only works for a specific frequency band. Also, if you’re out-of-phase with the speakers emitting the phase-cancellation, then you’ll get various effects, like a tremolo-type increase-and-decrease in amplitude (volume).
