Question

Can sound energy get converted to light energy or vice versa?

Answer 1

It has been calculated that one big cheer from the spectators in a football stadium has enough energy to boil a cup of water. Now, although heating water takes quite a bit of energy, this actually isn't very much from so many people.

A microphone works by sound vibrations moving a coil past a magnet. The output from the microphone will be around 10mV and is capable of delivering a few milliamps. In other words, not very much energy at all. This is the problem with converting sound energy - there is very little of it concentrated in a specific area to capture and therefore it is hard to get enough power to light up even the smallest light.

There are optically active materials that glow when they are vibrated or hit. Material of this type might begin to glow faintly if it is placed in a strong sound field. Even so, this conversion still requires a lot of sound energy and is probably not the next big green energy idea