For reference, the loudest sound ever on earth was 180dB https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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For reference, the theoretical maximum of sound with air as medium is 196db.
at what dB does the air ignite from the vibration of molecules
edit: okay so air does not ignite, but allows other things to ignite, but methane is one of those things in air so I reformulate the question as such:
what pressure of air is needed to produce sufficient heat to ignite any methane trapped within it, and what dB level is needed to form such compression even if for mere nanoseconds?
Apparantly depends on the medium and the type of wave being measured in dB.
At that point it can’t be sound waves, but potentially shockwaves could start to heat the air up.
Eventually with high enough temperature you can get air to become plasma, any matter in the air might burn but the air itself will not.
-not a scientist
I mean sounds is just differently compressed medium, usually air. Why are shock waves not sound waves?
Don't ask me, i am left with the exact same question myself. Which is why i felt the need to add the not a scientist disclaimer.
Though i did some research just now and its because the waves exhibit different very different properties
It might be a chicken and egg thing. Does it have different properties because it is fundamentally different, Or did we call it different because different properties emerged under different conditions (like having more energy)
Okay if you are talking about sound waves, they’re not really waves in the traditional sense. They are waves because it tracks the compactness/vibrations.
The reason why sound transfers faster in solids is because the atoms are more rigid due to, you know, being a solid.
If you pump enough energy into it, won’t you start doing funny things?
Ie: if you put enough energy into a rigid material there’s a point where it stops being able to take the force and breaks
I’m also not a scientist and also am the wrong type of engineer too so…
I’d imagine if you compact things faster than the energy can leave the immediate area, you’d run into funny phenomenons with the temperature/pressure/state of matter histogram.
Which brings me to my question of what is a shock wave if not a sound wave?
Speaking from how i intuitively feel about the science..
It looks like waves can exists on a spectrum from low energy to high energy and the more energy you add the more there is potential for complex reactions, the more new properties emerge and thus the more potential damage there can be done to given matter.
dB can be seen as the measurement of vibration that is usually used for the range of waves we call sound waves but i see no reason why it cant work outside the scope.
So technically feel the waves are really the same, but then compare that to the electromagnetic spectrum and we label some ranges as colors.
If red is the color that makes us angry. And green makes us calm. Then the question we are asking is: What shade of green do we need to make us angry?
Because were getting hung up on the fact there both measurements of photonic light, so essentially the same?
Is that a fair comparison? Can someone get a real scientist in the room please?
So speed of sound is the speed of compression. When you get past the speed of sound (or the speed that the material propagates) it becomes more like solid I think.
Isn’t that the temperature/pressure/state of matter histogram thing?
Yeah, it's called a phase change diagram
Im just gonna throw a number out there and use the wisdom of crowds via up/downvotes to estimate its validity
350db
Three fiddy?
2 upvotes vs 2 downvotes. This isn't working, I still don't know who is right.
410db
285db