At what sound Frequency does a glass break at?

Question

You know in movies they show someone singing so high that the glass breaks, or windows shatter. At what frequency does a typical wine glass break at?

Answer 1

There's no single answer to your question. The frequency that will break a glass depends entirely on what the resonant frequency of the glass is, and that's determined by the quality of the glass itself, its thickness, shape, temperature, etc.,.

Answer 2

A glass has a natural resonance, a frequency at which it will vibrate easily. A recent example of resonance was the millennium walkway in London, which oscillated alarmingly when a large number of people walked on it (this has now be cured). Blow across a beer bottle and you might get a note. This is another example of a resonance; in this case the air in the bottle neck is resonating against the spring provided by the air in the main body of the bottle. In the case of the glass we are trying to shatter, the body of the glass vibrates at resonance. If the force making the glass vibrate is big enough, the size of the vibration will become so large that the glass breaks.
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How loud does the sound have to be?

This depends on the glass. But for the glass we used the sound level was in the region of 135-140dB

Answer 3

The frequency varies with the configuration of the glass item. To get the glass to break, the sound must be at the resonant frequency of the glass item. This same phenomenon is what causes your television to buzz when a particular note is played.

Resonation occurs when the configuration of the item, or the volume of the cavity causes a particular frequency to re enforce itself. If you are speaking to someone (or to yourself) in a small room with hard walls and you suddenly hear the your voice very loudly, your vocal frequency was the same as the resonant frequency of the room.

Other examples include the tubes under the bars of a vibraphone. They amplify the sound because the resonant frequency of the tube is the same as the bar being struck.

Answer 4

I don't know about a 'typical' wine glass frequency. The resonance frequency needed is different for every glass. You'd need to sample it from the glass you are trying to break and then calibrate for it.

Answer 5

Shattering Glass With Sound

Answer 6

It depends on the glass.

Here is a sample:

http://www.physics.ucla.edu/demoweb/demomanual/acoustics/effects_of_sound/breaking_glass_with_sound.html

It says 769Hz for the pling sound flicking the glass, and 782.3 for the breaking frequency, plus it's cool.

Answer 7

IDK but I want to.What I do know is that it seems around 8000hz is the clearest of audible sound ...I think the tone attitude and emotion that are combined with the actual frequency is what shatters the glass .Like a subcategory of Hertz