Why don't sound waves produce heat?

Sound waves are physical motions of a transmission media in a (usually) cyclic fashion - i.e. read more

In the specific case of sound in air, the heat is generated, and the energy is transferred. In the majority of cases, the actual energy in the sound wave is not great, and it’ll be spread over a lot of area, and anything vibrated by the air wave will also be taking up some energy that will dissipate in the solid. read more

Re: Sound and Heat -- Whats the difference The natural frequency of a solid, such as a tuning fork, is determined by the inertia of the atoms and the the bonds between them, not by the source of the disturbance. read more

Sound can also produce localised heating. It is one of the sources of non-linearity in underwater (and air) acoustics. Sound can be thought of as a 'train' of high and low pressure regions. Since PV/T is a constant and the Volume is also generally constant then in the high pressure regions the temperature is increased - and so is the speed of sound. read more