Can Sound Waves bust up A wall....

[kermit911]

Can sound waves bust up a wall like it can to glass?

[magicdice]

it shatters glass because of resonant frequencies. as a wall is made of individual bricks which probably have different resonant frequencies, i doubt it. also, glass is much thinner & more brittle (kinda) - in an earthquake, a window is more likely to break than a wall

[Flurfl]

In theory it could but in practice it would require massive amounts of energy to do so. Sound travels as waves of density in a medium and as air is quite compressable then it's difficult for them to have a lot of impact on an structure like a wall. crystalline (or semi crystalline like glass) structues are a different matter as Magicdice says they have a resonant frequency which will cause vibration through the structure. Other structures can have resonant frequencies but they are more likely to be activated by wind rather than sound waves. Look up Tecoma Narrows Bridge, skyscrapers are also affected by this. Underwater is a different matter, as water isn't very compressable then the energy the sound wave carries is more easily transferred to another object. so you don't need to put as much energy in to do so. Another way might be using soliton waves, they also manage to hold their energy very well. 

[ann_h]

Some belief in "subsonic" sound waves causing damage to buildings.

Joshua was supposed to have brought down the walls of Jericho by blowing a very large (deep sounding) trumpet, an interesting piece of legendary evidence perhaps.

[Flurfl]

Glass walls perhaps :-)

Well if you want to include subsonic waves then you should include earthquakes, as they are (depending on type) vibrations through the ground as sound is through air.

[Thunderchild]

subsonic waves r very powerful. they are at a lower frequency than audible sound waves so they have 2 great advantages: 1 their frequenzy is closer to that of the structures resonating frequenzy and so have more effect as the energy is better transfered. 2 as there r less waves per second or in some cases (the most powerful) a wave lasts some seconds there is more energy per wave making a greater impact. some year ago a french scientistnearly brought down the building he was working in on sound experiments because the sound was going into the ventilating system and resonating thruout the whole building making it shake. he therefore made this second discovery but had to move his work out of paris less he do damage to the town ! the downside is that very large devices r required to produce such a low frequenzy sound as the wavelenght is impressive but basically it is compressed air thru the right sort of tubing and the effects can be devestating !