physics

Sonic weapon

Sonic weapon is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sonic weapon rather than just read about it. In short: Sonic and ultrasonic weapons (USW) are directed-energy weapons of various types that use sound to injure or incapacitate an opponent. Some sonic weapons make a focused beam of sound or of ultrasound; others produce an area field of sound.

Key takeaways

Sonic weapon belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sonic weapon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sonic weapon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sonic and ultrasonic weapons (USW) are directed-energy weapons of various types that use sound to injure or incapacitate an opponent. Some sonic weapons make a focused beam of sound or of ultrasound; others produce an area field of sound. As of 2025, military and police forces make some limited use of sonic weapons.

Use and deployment

Extremely high-power sound waves can disrupt or destroy the eardrums of a target and cause severe pain or disorientation. This is usually sufficient to incapacitate a person. Less powerful sound waves can cause humans to experience nausea or discomfort. The possibility of a device that produces frequency that causes vibration of the eyeballs—and therefore distortion of vision—was suggested by paranormal researcher Vic Tandy in the 1990s while attempting to demystify a "haunting" in his laboratory in Coventry. This "spook" was characterised by a feeling of unease and vague glimpses of a grey apparition. Some detective work implicated a newly-installed extractor fan, found by Tandy, that was generating infrasound of 18.9 Hz, 0.3 Hz, and 9 Hz. A long-range acoustic device (LRAD) produces a 30 degree cone of audible sound in frequencies within the human hearing spectrum (20–20,000 Hz). An LRAD was used by the crew of the cruise ship Seabourn Spirit in 2005 to deter pirates who chased and attacked the ship. More commonly this device and others of similar design have been used to disperse protesters and rioters in crowd control efforts. A similar system is called a "magnetic acoustic device". The Mosquito sonic devices have been used in the United Kingdom to deter teenagers from lingering around shops in target areas. The device works by emitting an ultra-high frequency blast (around 19–20 kHz) that teenagers or people under approximately 20 are susceptible to and find uncomfortable. Age-related hearing loss apparently prevents the ultra-high pitch sound from causing a nuisance to those in their late twenties and above, though this is wholly dependent on a young person's past exposure to high sound pressure levels. In 2020 and 2021, Greek authorities used long-range sound cannons to deter migrants on the Turkish border. High-amplitude sound of a specific pattern at a frequency close to the sensitivity peak of human hearing (2–3 kHz) is used as a burglar deterrent. Some police forces have used sound cannons against protesters, for example during the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh summit, the 2014 Ferguson unrest, and the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protest in North Dakota, among others. It has been reported that "sonic attacks" may have taken place in the American embassy in Cuba in 2016 and 2017 ("Havana syndrome"), leading to health problems, including hearing loss, in US and Canadian government employees at the US and Canadian embassies in Havana. However, more recent reports hypothesize microwave energy as the cause or their bodies tricking themselves via a mass psychogenic condition caused by extended periods of stress, such as working in an embassy of a nation considered hostile to your own. It has been claimed that the 2025 Belgrade stampede which occurred during the "15. for 15" anti-corruption protest was instigated by a sonic weapon. MUP and Ministry of Defense have denied usage of any sonic weapons against the protesters. During the 15 minutes of silence on the protest, at about 19:10, near the Beograđanka building, the sound caused many people to panic and physically react by falling down or jumping out of the way. Following the 2026 United States intervention in Venezuela, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared an eyewitness account of Venezuelan military personnel suffering injuries consistent with sonic weaponry during the American strike. Donald Trump, the President of the United States at the time of the strike, later told Katie Pavlich that "we have weapons nobody else knows about [...] we have some amazing weapons. That was an amazing attack." Trump's statement was seen as an indirect admission that a sonic weapon had been used during the attack. In a separate interview with the New York Post, he referred to one of these as a secret weapon called a "discombobulator," saying it caused Venezuelan defense systems, including Russian and Chinese rockets, to "not work," and that forces "pressed buttons and nothing worked" during the operation, although a senior U.S. official told CNN that Trump may have been conflating several existing technologies, such as cyber tools to disable warning systems and acoustic or directed‑energy systems, rather than referring to a single, undisclosed device.

Research

Studies have found that exposure to high intensity ultrasound at frequencies from 700 kHz to 3.6 MHz can cause lung and intestinal damage in mice. Heart rate patterns following vibroacoustic stimulation has resulted in serious negative consequences such as atrial flutter and bradycardia. See: Microwave auditory effect

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sonic weapon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sonic weapon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sonic weapon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sonic weapon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sonic weapon

In research: Sonic weapon appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sonic weapon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sonic weapon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Devices to alter consciousness, Directed-energy weapons, Non-lethal weapons, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sonic weapon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sonic weapon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sonic weapon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sonic weapon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sonic weapon in simple terms?

Why does Sonic weapon matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sonic weapon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sonic weapon.