Hi
LOL strange title. But heres a question:
If you have a normal subwoofer capable of 10mm excursion at 50hz, it means the membrane is moving at around 1/600th the speed of sound. Imagine you had a membrane, infinitely high and wide, capable of any speed and acceleration in an earthlike infinite atmosphere. Now if you play 50hz over that membrane and increase the volume it should simply get louder. Sound energy is merely kinetic energy going back and forth, now if you adjust volume until it moves at above the speed of sound (around 6m excursion dont touch that speaker LOL) the kinetic energy directly applied to the air at the membrane is higher then the energy a sound wave can carry.
Ive had some discussions with a mate and we came to very little conclusions.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQVcZ3JRasdgZJgRrKVoApQXdWN_5Duf2ewDfwyq...If you increase volume in the diagram above, A will get denser, and B will get voider. However as you increase the volume above MACH 1 membrane movement, there is too much energy stored in A that the wave cannot transmit. The sound will not turn into Impulses, nor will a sine Wave turn into a square wave as in digital volume distortion. One idea would be, the remaining energy turns into heat. Or that the Air in A will move into B, distorting the sound? How? Or will paradoxically the volume decrease as you go above Mach 1? Will it turn into white noise? As I am not a physist or anything, there are a lot in here, I am pretty clueless. Can anyone answer this?
How would it sound like, or rather, how would the waveform look like (I guess a sound at that volume would just tear you apart and turn you into stew) at MACH 1? What kind of distortion do you get when getting close to MACH 1? And eventually what would happen when the membrane goes above that speed?
Thanks for any answers already. Cant wait until someone replies!!
gratz, azul