# What's the Straight Dope on Acoustic Levitation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945 "2018-12-30T22:08:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/41 "2019-01-02T20:36:38Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > One of the funniest crank stories about ancient aliens and the pyramids was some guy who claimed that some numeric ratio found in some aspect of the construction was exactly equal to the mass of the proton, to several significant figures. That would be the mass of the proton _in S.I. units_. There was a guy here who said that the fact that the arc tangent of the square root of five was about 186,000, that the Golden ratio was associated with light - because if you do the arc tangent in degrees, you get an answer somewhat close to the speed of light in Imperial units. [Phi Factoids. - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=102817) ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/42 "2019-01-02T21:10:17Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Not to mention what it does to human flesh. > > You’re talking about the kind of energies that Bond villains put into their death traps. A 1920s BC death ray? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/43 "2019-01-02T23:27:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **outlierrn** : > > Well, the green ones or the blue ones ? You can’t trust the blue ones. But how do I know you’re not… Wait, I’ve got it! “If I were to ask you if blue lizard people could be trusted, what would you say?” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/44 "2019-01-02T23:50:08Z")
> [@chronos](#): > > but how do i know you’re not… > > Wait, i’ve got it! > > “if i were to ask you if blue lizard people could be trusted, what would you say?” Hisssssssss! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/45 "2019-01-03T14:06:09Z")
> [@ohiomstr2](#): > > Such revelations have led Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, to note that in one sense it was the Pyramids that built Egypt—rather than the other way around." Hawass hasn’t held an official position in Egypt since 2011. He was a politically connected hack who greatly hindered Egyptian archeology. Good riddance. (Hmm, I wonder what [happened](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revolution_of_2011) in Egypt in 2011?) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/46 "2019-02-02T23:20:21Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > If vibrations won’t work; how about hydraulics? Here is a video from a guy who thinks that they could have used water to float the blocks into place: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJcp13hAO3U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJcp13hAO3U) I asked about the same theory a while back. [See discussion here](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=841216). tl;dr answer: it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![ohiomstr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/82dd89/32.png) [@ohiomstr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ohiomstr2)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/47 "2019-02-03T02:18:53Z")
There were no aliens, no lost technology, no magic spells or anything else besides a group of dedicated and skilled people working on a difficult but obviously not impossible project. > **[BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: The Private Lives of the...](https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/pyramid_builders_01.shtml)** > > Dr Joyce Tyldesley reveals the people behind some of the world's most famous strictures. > **[Demystifying the Egyptian Pyramids with Hard Facts](https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/demystifying-egyptian-pyramids-hard-facts-009730)** > > It has always fascinated, and worried me at the same time, how many people I meet that are still mesmerized by aspects of the pyramids in Egypt that archeologists solved many years ago. The development of pyramids in ancient Egypt is well understood. It is a facsinating story that does not include little green men. [http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/pyramids/home.html](http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/pyramids/home.html) > **[How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built?](https://www.livescience.com/32616-how-were-the-egyptian-pyramids-built-.html)** > > There are no photographs of the pyramid being built, and the engineers didn't leave detailed blueprints. Any speculation on how these structures were created that ignores the actual evidence is pseudoscientific nonsense. The study of these cultures and their structures is extremely interesting, but relying on speculation and zero actual evidence will lead you astray. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945/48 "2019-02-03T21:25:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But how do I know you’re not… > > Wait, I’ve got it! > > “If I were to ask you if blue lizard people could be trusted, what would you say?” “I AM a Blue Lizard Person, and I don’t trust us.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-acoustic-levitation/826945.md?page=2)