The Energy of Sound Waves

Assoc. Prof. LUCHIAN IONESCU, PhD Ovidius University Faculty of Arts luchian52@yahoo.com

Abstract Summary
Science measures sound waves as cycles per second. That measurement of sound is called frequency. And, now modern physics, in fact, tells us that this dimension and others are actually composed of tiny strings that vibrate at different rates. From the electrons moving around the nucleus of an atom to the planets in distant galaxies revolving around stars, everything is in a state of vibration therefore, at least conceptually, everything is creating sound, whether we hear it or not. Resonance is the natural vibration of an object... the specific frequency at which it vibrates. Every object has a resonant frequency... whether we hear it audibly or not. Keywords: sound waves, vibration, frequency, resonance, subtle energy, music, physics.

Introduction
The term energy (in ancient Greek - energhia - activity), as it is used in physics or more generally in science and technology, is a concept applied to describe and understand processes. There are many discussions about "energy" involving heat, wind or electrical energy. Nevertheless its definition is much broader. Many quantic physicists have explained that, at atomic level, everything that exists within the universe is energy, vibrating and oscillating with different frequency rates. Some of these energetical vibrations are very familiar to us: light, radio waves, X-rays or sound. All of them belong to the electomagnetic spectrum, the only difference between them is that they vibrates at different frequency levels. In 1900, the German phycicist Max Planck explained that energy radiates not into a continuous and uniform flux, but in small particles called quanta. In 1905, Einstein arrived to similar conclusions. The quanta are the smallest quantities of energy that are being radiated through the force of thoughts from one human being to another. In this respect, music plays the role of an energetic carrier, both physical and spiritual, of musical information. The nature of this carrier is physical since the sound waves are being propagated though the air and, at the same time, spiritual because biowaves are being conveyed through various electromagnetic fields, respectively because of the interference or those hierarchized fields. The universe around us is now considered to consist of substance (the matter i.e. condensed energy) and force field (free energy). The Matter is characterized by two fundamental values: mass and energy. Mass measures inertia and gravitation, while energy scalarly measures matter movement. The word energy is very common and largely spread, although the actual content of this concept is not as common or as easy to analyze, since it bears a series of subtle features which are characteristic for specific forms of energy transfer.

The broadest definition of energy defines it as a measure for matter movement. This phrase, though accurate, lacks explicitness due to the great diversity of movement forms of the matter. Energy defines the quality of changes and processes that occur within the universe, starting with the movement in space and ending with thought. The many forms of matter movement are interconnected and their capacity of reciprocal transformation allowed for their measurement with a single measure unit: energy. Since life is energy and energy is mattter, one can only concludes that life and energy are manifestations of one and the same phenomenon. Energy is one of the most important concept that has been discovered in physics. A correct understanding of the notion of energy is a basic condition for analysing energetical systems and processes.

Development
Every one of us has aproximately 60.000 thoughts daily. All these thoughts produce consequences because each thought is in fact energy launched into the universe, not only in one, intended, direction, but in all directions. On its way, the energy of our thoughts searches for another energy to harmoniously vibrate with. Each thought, good or bad, triggers a process of resonance. Until recently, scholars believed that it is only through our thoughts that we radiate energy into the universe and that the most powerful energy transmitter in our body would be the brain, with its electromagnetic pulses. But our body has yet another, even more powerful, energy transmitter the heart which generates an electrical field much more powerful than the one generated by the brain. This is one of the biggest discoveries of the XXth century. California Cardiac Institute carried out a thorough study of the human heart. The experiments showed that the human heart generates an electrical field which extends way beyond the human body and has a specific shape of a ring with a radius of 2-3 meters around the body. Although the brain also radiates electromagnetic fields, scientists demonstrated that electrical waves produced by the heart are one hundred times more powerful than the ones produced by the brain and the magnetic waves 5000 times. Laboratory studies have shown that the human DNA have a direct influence on the substance atoms are made of, i.e. on the small particles of light called photons. The Russian physicist Vladimir Poponin carried out some experiments which were famous at the beginning of 1990s. Poponins conclusion was that a quantic field exists and links us with everything else around us. Via this field one is conected with everyone and with everything, consciously or not. The discovery of the influence of external energy upon DNA genes gave birth to a new science called epigenetics. Conclusion? Our thoughts and feelings are able to modify the DNA and the DNA directly modifies the substance world is built of. According to oriental metaphysics, the human being has been created through sound and, consequently, it is sound. The human body is a complex of vibrations. Sound waves generated by an oceanic tide do not fade, they remain eternal and ever-present, they change and can be recomposed into various forms of energy, since they are energy. Thoughts (another form of energy) generate great or distructive deeds. Everything exists within the invisible and the inaudible, even before it manifests itself in the visible and the audible.

Energy is, scientifically, a measure for the capacity of the physical system to perform mechanical work when changing from one state to another one, chosen as referential. Energy is a function of state. When a physical system undergoes a changing from its state to a referential one, certain modifications regarding its relative positition and the characteristics of the external systems are remanent in the environment, such as: modification of postion, or of speed, modification of termic state, modification of electrical, or of magnetical state, self-modification and modification of its external systems. The effects upon external systems are being called external actions of the changing system. If all actions consist in performing mechanical work, than this is the equivalent of external actions in mechanical work. The addition of the equivalents of all the external activities that are being produced when a physical system undergoes a changing from one given state to a referential one results in the total energy of the physical system in a given state in relation to the referential one and reflects the system capacity to produce mechanical work. According to the law of energy conservation, the difference between energies of a physical system when changing from one state to another does not depend on the way the transformation is taking place, but on the two states only. Once the value of the refential energy chosen arbitrarily, then the energy value in any other state is definible. Consequently, energy is a potential function. Depending on the referential state, energy can be positive, negative, or zero. An energy form is defined as every additional term that compose the broadest expression of the total energy of physical systems and that depends exclusively on a specific class of state values (for example: mechanical, electrical, or magnetic etc.). Considering the mass-energy relation, an inert mass of the system corresponds to any form of energy of a physical system, as in Einsteins formula: , where m represents the mass of the system and c stands for the speed of light. Interestingly, mass is not energy, it merely is a measure associated to it. The potential energy is the part of the total energy which can be mathematically expressed with those cinematic measures that characterize the geometrical configuration of all the solids of the respective system. The potential energy only depends on the relative positions of the solids within the system and in relation to other external sysytems. Potential energy can take various forms: deformation, elastic, gravitational, or electrical energy. The internal energy is the part of the total energy which exclusively depends on the internal state values. Classical physicists consider that the internal energy of physical systems may continuously vary. Energy is measured in Joules (J)1. Conservation is one of the characteristics of energy, considering it as a part of all matter that exists in two forms: substance and field. In his study Considrations Gnrales sur la Nature des Acides (General Considerations on the Nature of Acids), Antoine Lavoisier formulated, for the first time in 1778, a conservation law as follows: In nature, nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.

Measurement unit for energy; It is equal to the energy expended (or work done) in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one meter .

This energy is the cause not only for the expansion of the universe, as we have already know from the physicist Hubble since the 1930s, but for its rapid expansion also. The universe expands increasingly fast and we are aware of this fact for aproximately 20 years since the revolution in cosmology took place due to the advanced technology which permitted launching modern satelites in order to study the universe at as great distances as possible. Classical science defines energy (a term coming from Latin.)2 as the capacity to act, to generate events". A moving object can generate events on the basis of the energy of its movement. A river contains the necessary energy to move the huge blades of a turbine engine. Thus, the energy of the moving water is transformed into electrical energy. This type of energy which is contained by moving objects or substances is known as kinetic energy (kinesios movement in Greek)3. The sound that results from vibrating movement of objects is also a form of energy, which can be chaotic or organized, weak or strong; the entire sound energy produced by an enthusiastic audience clapping hands after a musical performance would be hardly enough when converted to electrical energy - to boil water for a cup of coffee, but it still subtlely changes the currents dyamics. Sound is a dynamic informational structure, with its own energy (it travels in form of waves), information and vibration. Sound contains elementary, primary energy which is unstable since it dissipates in time and space, as electrical energy also is. Sound is an ideal information vehicle for humans, whose sense of hearing is one of the basic senses and who developed specific sensuous abilities in this respect. Considering the vibrational component of sound, one can distinguish between: resonance (when the interaction between two solids amplifies itself and the two harmonize with one another) and attenuation (when vibrations are opposite to one another and the interaction is thus fading). Sound is a living energy. A form of energy is the more living, the harder it is to be captured. This form of energy interact with everything on its way, vibrates, fades and then it is lost, but it still produces subtle effects on the human body, because it resonates with both human flesh and brain waves, an individual being thus able to aesthetically experience the acoustic delight and, at the same time, to receive information about feelings and emotions of other individuals (the composer, the performer). Analyzing the energies that are being transmitted and received within a concert theater, the quantities of energy consumed by the performer and accumulated by the audience, stage fright are very powerful and paralyzing emotions which represents, in our view, a blockage of the energetic waves from the part of the transmitter. The stage frightened performer cannot cope with the energetic flood coming from the audience, their inner structure and psychophysical profile do not allow for the energy to be transformed, used in their own advantage, amplified and, then, given back to the audience. The inner energetic accumulation of a performing musician can be systematically trained on a daily basis, with specific exercises, at first under the supervision of an energo-therapist (usually the instrumental teacher whose scenic experience is already rich), by physical and mental relaxation, or with other types of exercises (Yoga).

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Tahir Cagin, scientist at Texas A&M University in the USA made a great discovery in the field of nanotechnology, which can lead to the posibilty of collecting energy directly from sounds. A pressure applied upon a material object generates electrical current. This pressure could originate in sounds. Some objects and substances generate - when pressed electrical current. They are called piezoelectric materials and can produce energy when hit with sounds or when the device moves. The transformation rate from acoustic or kinetic energy into electrical current depends on the nature of the material and of its dimensions. Cagin demonstrated that the highest rate of transformation is achieved by a piezoelectric material with dimensions of exactly 21 nanometres. Experts from the Faculty of Electric and Electronic Engineering at Nottingham University are currently working on a component which can transform acoustic energy into electricity. The system work with the help of magnets, which are displayed in a specic configuration and which transform sounds into electrical energy. Computer simulations have been previously carried out and showed good results. Another step forward was taken as testing models are being currently worked on and prepared for an upcoming testing period. Everything vibrates within our material universe. The stars send electromagentic waves in time and space. Musical sounds bear the same waviness (wave-like, undulatory character) as the light coming from the stars. The knowledge of Ancient Greeks included the existence of seven planets, exactly as many as the musical notes. The concept of music of the spheres was introduced by Pitagora, who thought that planets moving on their orbits generate acoustic harmonies. In the Vth century BC, Pitagoras vision of space was that the stars were fixed and pinned on a sphere around the earth, situated at a distance that was considered as a perfect harmonic distance. The distance between the earth and the moon was considered as a tone, then from the moon to Mercury a semitone, from Mercury to Venus a semitone, from Venus to the sun a tone and a half; from the sun to Mars a tone, and then a semitone for each distances between Mars and Jupiter, Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn and the shere of the fixed stars. Adding those distances, six tones are obtained, exactly as many as there are in an octave. According to Pitagora: There is geometry in the chords waving. There is music in the space of the spheres. Thus, the music of the spheres theory originates in the developing of the concept of universe. Platons idea was that the radii of planets orbits (seen as circels) were proportional to numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 (8, 9, i 27; the last numbers do not correspond with Greeks concept of music). The idea of similarity between planets and musical notes was launched in this Greek period (the VIth IIIrd century BC). Considering the acoustic laws of Pitagora, Aristoteles and Aristoxenes thought that the sun and the moon, situated on two fixed pilars, form the Tetrachord (a series of four musical sounds on a musical scale). From ancient Greeks period till present times, music and astronomy have co-operated in understanding the universe. Modern science discovered radio-astronomy, thus bringing to life the ancient myth of music of the spheres, which was supposed as already existing, but impossible to be heard. Technology developments allowed for transposing mere ideas into perceivable reality. Thus, human kind could at last hear the sounds generated by stars, pulsars, quasars, and planets with magnetosphere as a universal choir for several parts and orchestrated by the remanent radiation.

Earth is a planet with magnetoshere that sends into space sounds which are detectable with various radio-astronomical techniques. But how do we, humans, perceive the vibrations of the earthly magnetic field? Our planet is in the way of the solar wind and is being flooded by matter and energy coming from the sun. Geomagnetic activity depends closely on the solar activity. When a coronal mass ejection occurs or a powerful eruption touches earth, electromagnetic storms are being produced. One of the indexes that measures geomagnetic activity is the Kp index, which was represented by Bartles, since 1939, in graphs similar to musical notes. Those indexes have been translated into music, the result being the song of the Earth. The translation was literal, with as little artistic intervention as possible. Geomagnetic storms were represented by musical chords. Physicists at the University of Syracuse are about to use a new super-computer, called SUGAR, with a power of 640 GB and 96 terabytes RAM, that can discern sounds generated by a black hole. The computer will process data received by the telescope in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which was designed to receive waves generated by gravitational fluxes of space-time. According to Einsteins general relativity theory, these fluxes are the result of the celestial bodies being interwoven in space and time. Therefore, gravitational fluxes which are to be heard by scientists are the result of violent cosmic events, such as the collision of black holes. Astronauts at NASA published in 2007 a series of recordings of the "sounds" of the universe, and two contemporary musicians (Vincent Baettig and Laurent Danis) are using these recordings in their composing work. The result is a "music" based on sounds produced by plantes. The "celestial wonders" have been captured by space probe capable of processing and tranforming acoustic and electromagnetic waves, so that the result can be "heard". An explanation for the existence of these sounds could be the following: even if space is a virtual vacuum, this does not necessary mean that the universe is mute. Sounds exist as electromagnetic vibrations. Space sounds can be heard with the help of special instruments of the space probe Voyager and the processed data at NASA. In the ancient times, Plato discussed the music of celestial bodies, which can be heard by certain people only. This theory was taken over by Pitagora (in the VIth BC) and his disciples Aristoxenes and Tarent (in the IVth BC), who preocupied themselves not only with phylosophy, but with musical theory as well, generating thus a series of mysticometaphysical consideration (for example: the harmony of the celestial spheres, the link between tone scale and planets etc.). We are living in a world of sounds, audible or not, musical or chaotic, strange or familiar, pleasant or disturbing, flustering or healing. Musical language can be understood as a cosmic language even better than we could with other scientific methods of investigation. Each planet has its own sound integrated in a cosmic simphony.

Conclusion:
The universe and our galaxy, the Milky Way, are energy. The very page you are reading now is also energy and so are all living beings, light, seas, food, stars, sun, respiration in the end, everything is indisputably energy. Are we discussing about that space event that took place in the material universe at the beginning of time and that is known as the BigBang? What is left of that Primary Source? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Same as a shot, the energy was launched in space in all directions possible, while its revolution towards itself

is still in progress at an incredible rate and it does not show signs of stopping, even 120 billion years have passed according to recent studies. The moment has come when we should give physiognomy and character to the energy we discussed in the present paper. As a conclusion, everything is a unique system of spheric vibrations (pulsations) working according to the simple musical principles (harmonies). If we intended to demonstrate that this model is the real one, we should find a harmonic unification to be valid in all universe, in other words, there should exists a single musical ratio at all levels. In music one can distinguish various types of time at once: a first type is that of the clock (the period of time in which the musical piece is being performed), the second is the subjective bergsonian type (which is a characteristic of both the performer and the receptor, i.e. the audience) and the third is the time of the work itself, of the ideas within the work (a characteristic of the composer). From a subjective point of view, sounds have four basic characteristics: intensity, pitch, timbre and value. The Infinite Source is primarily Infinite Inteligence and at the same time and because of that Infinite Music. And exactly these acoustic waves are given the task of spreading into infinite spaces the whole Creativity contained in the Source. What does a human being in order to comunicate his projects, his intentions? He uses fonation in form of language or music, where as language is based on the phenomenal characteristics of sounds.

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