If I blow really hard from a whistle near someone's ear, it'll hurt a lot. But if I blow directly at a person's ear, it won't hurt nearly as much. But shouldn't the whistle (or any other obstruction) strictly reduce the amount of energy hitting the person's ear? So why is something with strictly less energy hurting the ear significantly more? The only explanation I can think of is that blowing through a whistle produces higher+purer-frequency oscillations, which may resonate more with ones ear-drums, causing more damage. By the way, I will preempt this question getting closed by saying that absolutely does not answer it. That is focused more on pressure, and directly apply pressure to someone's ear (e.g. by covering it with ones mouth and then blowing). I'm particularly asking about blowing out in the open, without increasing pressure significantly. Lastly, if resonance is the answer, my question is ________. which frequency is the actual resonant frequency of someone's ear drum? Or around what rough range are frequencies most dangerous to listen to ________.