..how loud a noise would the Sun make? Would we all be deafened by it?
2006-10-21 23:45:09 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
In order to avoid the brickbats of some pedants replying to your interesting question, I'll interpret it as asking what would happen if there was an atmosphere between the Sun and us which would allow sound to travel from there to here (which would have the same effect).
The sun releases energy at a rate of 383 billion trillion kilowatts. It's hard to know how much of that would be in the form of sound in the scenario you describe - much less than an atomic bomb, because it's not actually exploding as such. Let's make a guesstimate of 1%. That's about 4x10^24 Watts.
Sound pressure goes down as the square of distance, and the sun is 93 million miles or 1.5x10^11 metres away. So distance squared is roughly 2x10^22 square metres. That would mean the sun was as loud as a (100% efficient) 200W speaker at a distance of 1 metre, which is very loud indeed.
But that depends how good my guesstimate was. A better figure might be one thousandth of one percent - or equivalent to a puny (but still noticeable) 1W speaker two and a half metres away. Or a millionth of a percent - that same feeble speaker at a virtually inaudible 70 metres.
And additionally, the very high noise levels close to the sun would mean that much of the sound energy would be converted to heat instead, so the level reaching us would be significantly lower than calculated above.
2006-10-23 02:16:25 · answer #1 · answered by gvih2g2 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think your practical question is, if we could deliver to the sun a (temporarily?) heat resistant microphone and amplifier and transmit the sound level to the earth what would we hear and how loud would it be (perhaps multiplied by the area of the sun visible to earth)? That's an interesting question.
Sound travels through a medium and the sun is mostly hot hydrogen plasma and sound levels diminish greatly per the inverse square law with increased distance from the source. The sound picked up by the microphone would likely be noise (like random white noise) due to stripped hydrogen ions striking the microphone diaphragm with energy characterized by the low atomic weight of hydrogen but high kinetic energy due to temperature. Any loud electrical discharge nearby (like lightning on earth) would also likely be picked up by a nearby microphone. Just as a huge gong makes more sound than a small one, the total sound energy on the surface visible from earth likely would be deafening, perhaps like the leak from a punctured tire with enough total energy to destroy the earth. Of course if the sound was transmitted toward earth from the sun (so far away that light takes about eight minutes to arrive) the inverse square law would greatly diminish the sound protecting us. This is of course pure speculation.
2006-10-22 03:13:00 · answer #2 · answered by Kes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
But sound cannot travel through a vacuum because you need the movement of the air to create the sound!
We hear because the air causes vibrations of varying degrees on our eardrums - No air movement - no sound!
It is probably just as well that vacuums exist!
Come to think of it, why are vacuum cleaners so bloomin' noisy, then?????
Okay, I do know the answer to that one!
2006-10-22 00:24:43 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
good one for a Sunday morning !. Bearing in mind that a nuclear explosion, ( a tad noisy ), is on a parallel with the the process that goes on inside the sun, I'd say ear defenders would become a new fashion accessory as the sound would be constant
2006-10-21 23:58:06 · answer #4 · answered by cereal killer 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it'd be hearable, but not deafening... like a breeze in the background. It is a kinda a fair distance away!
2006-10-21 23:53:36 · answer #5 · answered by Snaredrum 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the intensity of sound reaching us from the sun will be similar in proportion to that of the intensity of light reaching the earth relative to the intensity of light on the surface of the sun
we'll be so glad the sun is that far away from us,
2006-10-22 01:31:36 · answer #6 · answered by latif_1950 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A very interesting and thougtfull question.
It would have to be a roaring malestom to represent such a violent surface!
2006-10-23 04:09:23 · answer #7 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sound is a pressure wave in a medium. If there's no medium theres no wave. The question is fallacious.
2006-10-22 01:00:52 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Think it would sound like a very large gas oven!
2006-10-21 23:52:34 · answer #9 · answered by Jimbobarino 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
While we are here, why don't we all simply rewrite the entire book on physics??
2006-10-22 02:33:12 · answer #10 · answered by Andrew W 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋