The Ancients Knew the Power of Sound We are Only Discovering Now

[MonkMode]

It is.
Sound is air vibrating.

Do that in a vacuum and it doesn't work.

Try again.

Sound does not have any mass.

So it cannot exert any pressure to push objects up.

Why then, can it levitate objects?

[ReturnofBroccoli]

Try again.

Sound does not have any mass.

So it cannot exert any pressure to push objects up.

Why then, can it levitate objects?

Acoustic levitation is a thing
High and low pressure pockets formed by sound

[MonkMode]

Acoustic levitation is a thing
High and low pressure pockets formed by sound

Can you please clarify the meaning of “pressure pockets”?

Is sound adding pressure, or relieving pressure?

[ArMaP]

Is sound adding pressure, or relieving pressure?

Both.

If you hit a stone with a hammer, the stone and the hammer vibrate, and those vibrations increase and decrease pressure in the surrounding air. Those changes in pressure reach our ears and are converted into electrical signals sent to the brain by the cochlea.

[MonkMode]

Both.

If you hit a stone with a hammer, the stone and the hammer vibrate, and those vibrations increase and decrease pressure in the surrounding air. Those changes in pressure reach our ears and are converted into electrical signals sent to the brain by the cochlea.

Since the sound doesn’t have any mass, how does it cause cause any change in the pressure of the air surrounding it?

[ArMaP]

Since the sound doesn’t have any mass, how does it cause cause any change in the pressure of the air surrounding it?

Sound is the consequence, not the cause.

In the video below you can see a tuning fork (and some instruments) in slow motion, and you can see them vibrate.




The vibrations of the objects make the changes in air pressure, and changes in air pressure make other things vibrate. When that vibration reaches our ears and it's at a frequency we can detect we call it sound.

In the video below you can see that when we have two tuning forks for the same frequency, vibrating one makes the other also vibrate. That's because the air is transmitting the vibrations to the second tuning fork, and as it was made to vibrate at the same frequency it reacts to it.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6PPzC4Z9gWE

Some musical instruments, like the Portuguese guitar, have double strings but the player only hits one, the second vibrates thanks to the resonance, the air being made to vibrate at the frequency the second string is tuned to.

[MonkMode]

Sound is the consequence, not the cause.

In the video below you can see a tuning fork (and some instruments) in slow motion, and you can see them vibrate.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r41bs0endYo]

The vibrations of the objects make the changes in air pressure, and changes in air pressure make other things vibrate. When that vibration reaches our ears and it's at a frequency we can detect we call it sound.

In the video below you can see that when we have two tuning forks for the same frequency, vibrating one makes the other also vibrate. That's because the air is transmitting the vibrations to the second tuning fork, and as it was made to vibrate at the same frequency it reacts to it.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6PPzC4Z9gWE

Some musical instruments, like the Portuguese guitar, have double strings but the player only hits one, the second vibrates thanks to the resonance, the air being made to vibrate at the frequency the second string is tuned to.

The sound from banging a tuning fork or plucking a guitar string is going to travel much further than the air particles moved by the vibration of these instruments.

Hence, the question STILL stands, since sound doesn’t have any mass, how does it exert any force to levitate an object?

Acoustic levitation REMAINS a paradox until the question is answered.

[MonkMode]

Double

[Astyanax]

I find frequency to be misused in this case but we have no better word for it. 

Frequency has no part of its description that covers the wave shape, the interaction of two signals, the interaction of multiple signals, variations of power levels, etc.. 

‘Wave shape’ = envelope
'The interaction of two (or more) signals’ = interference
‘Variations of power levels’ = amplitude

All waves have three characteristics: amplitude, frequency (or wavelength) and phase. Together these can be measured and graphed to form the envelope of the wave. The interaction of signals (‘interference’) can be calculated and graphed by a technique known as Fourier analysis.
 

If we don't have a word for it, that shows how little we know of these effects. 

But as you see, we have plenty of words. All these phenomena are well known to science, both in acoustics (the science of sound, or more generally, mechanical vibration) and wave mechanics (which applies to all forms of vibrational energy from electromagnetic to gravitational).

The idea that these effects are unknown to science is profoundly mistaken. This is basic freshman-physics stuff. The idea that sound has some mysterious physical power unknown to foolish scientists is simply not true. We have systems and formulas for calculating and mutually relating all the phenomena you refer to above, and more.

What is mysterious is the psychological power of sound, particularly music. Why does music move us the way it does? Why do we find some noises pleasant and others repellent, even physically painful? This is an area in which there is still a great deal of work to be done, but it is completely incorrect to say that there are powers of sound that we are only discovering now.

There’s a lot of superstitious gee-whiz rubbish about it on the internet, I know.

[Astyanax]

I change my heart rate by changing the way I breath. If I inhale start to exhale and then stop then my heart has a short pause and reduces its frequency. If I keep doing it I can slow it down 10 or more beats per minute.

No chanting or meditation required.

The pause is actually illusory. Your heart doesn’t pause in its cycle, it just varies its frequency. But otherwise you are quite right, and I often do something similar when I am agitated or anxious and want to calm down. I deliberately make my breathing slow and regular, and within a dozen breaths or so my pulse has slowed down (though an anxious thought can boost the rate again).

This is, in fact, a technique taught to practitioners of Transcendental Meditation or TM, which I learnt from a magazine article decades ago. It is the closest I get to meditation, a dangerous practice which, I believe, damages the intellect.