Bass Speaker’s Fake Fire Extinguisher

Starting in the late 20th century, scientists in several countries experimented with bass tones at 60 hertz and below to see if low-frequency sound could put out flames, and the work continued into the 2000s and 2010s in labs across the United States and Europe. In a more recent investigation of these systems, one researcher tracing the effect back to its source realized that the loudspeakers used to generate the sound were blasting strong airflows over the fire, much like a fan. That moving air, not any special acoustic property, starved the flames of oxygen and blew them out.

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