If soundwaves are compression waves in air molecules, and thermal energy is vibrations in air molecules, why aren’t loud things hot?

Question

Like if I have a really bright flashlight I can feel heat from the beam, but I can blast a speaker at max volume and I might even feel the vibrations in my hand, but there’s no change in temperature.

Is this a glitch in the matrix?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Being hot is a molecule vibrating chemical bonds but not translating in space (a little but not much). A compression wave is a whole bunch of molecules translating back and forth together.

Hope that helps!