Eli5 Is there a maximum sound frequency that can travel trough concrete?

Question

Does sound at 10000Hz or higher travel through concrete? If so how is it possible that solid can vibrate at such a frequency?

In: 5

Answer 1

If you increase the amplitude enough, any frequency can travel through concrete. But you are correct in your instinct that higher frequency sound is dampened much more by concrete than lower frequency sound. In fact, this is generally true in solid materials. Usually the attenuation approximately grows approximately with the square of the frequency, so a 5 kHz signal is attenuated about 25 times more than a 1 kHz signal. Although it is important to note that our hearing is logarithmic so “attenuated 25 times more” really means something more like “sounds 30% softer”, not “sounds 25 times softer”.