270 decibels, underwater, boils/vaporises

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Katji

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https://idmmag.com/news/watch-scientists-create-loudest-underwater-sound-it-boils-water

Imagine a sound so loud it vaporizes whatever it comes into contact with? Now imagine this vaporising sound is that of a tiny water jet ? about half the width of a human hair- being hit by an even tinnier X-ray laser.

At 270 decibels, these rumbling pressure waves are louder than NASA?s noisiest rocket launch (205 decibels)- but don?t worry, you can?t hear it because it was created in a vacuum.

However, you can see its devastating effects in action thanks to a series of slow-motion videos filmed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, as part of the study.

?It is just below the threshold where [the sound] would boil the water in a single wave oscillation,? physicist Claudiu Stan, now with Rutgers University Newark, told Physics Buzz.
Vaporisation station

Credit: SLAC Stanford University

As can be seen in the video above (filmed in about 40 nanoseconds- 40 billionths of a second), the tiny pulsating laser immediately splits the tiny water jet into two, vaporising the fluid it touches while sending pressure waves wobbling down either side of the jet.

What?s amazing is that although the molecules are severely disturbed, there?s not enough disturbance to warrant them a complete breakdown like they would if X-rays were pointed at them normally.

The results suggest it?s not possible to go louder in water without completely breaking down water- this is the threshold.

If it can vaporise water, think about how it would destroy your eardrums and internal organs?

The study of the loudest underwater sound was published in the peer reviewed journal Physical Review Fluids.
 


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