Can high frequency sounds transmit through windows?

March 30, 2007 11:42 AM

Can a 17kHz sound transmit through windows?

I was wondering if sounds like the infamous teen buzz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Buzz, which is 17 kHz, if loud enough, go through a window and thus be heard outside or in another room?

posted by SoulNoise to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

I don't see why it wouldn't. This chart only goes up to 4khz, but I don't see why higher frequencies would be any diffrent. Glass dosn't absorb sound that much at all.
posted by delmoi at 12:01 PM on March 30, 2007

Basically, the higher the frequency, the more the sound will be blocked by the window; however, no window will completely block any sound. There is no cut-off frequency above which sound will not be transmitted. So yes, given sufficient volume and/or sensitive enough detection, the sound could be heard through any window.

For more details see this study (particularly the charts).
posted by ssg at 12:11 PM on March 30, 2007

delmoi: According to that chart glass is on par with concrete at 4khz. I think that chart is talking absorbed vs reflected, which doesn't take into account transmission.
posted by aubilenon at 12:17 PM on March 30, 2007

I can sometimes hear the 15.75 kHz hum of a CRT's flyback transformer from half a block away (and can always hear it from another room in the same house), so I would imagine that the answer is "yes".
posted by solid-one-love at 12:51 PM on March 30, 2007

Thanks for the answers!
posted by SoulNoise at 12:13 AM on March 31, 2007