Objects’ vibration mostly dies to internal friction, not emitted sound

Evidence

Most objects are very poor at converting vibrational energy sound. The vibrations damp out mainly due to other sources of friction, not to sound production. Inducing such objects to produce sound more efficiently barely increases the overall damping; in other words, that part due to sound production remains small compared to other sources of damping. This is a seemingly modest observation but is actually a key to many phenomena involving sound production. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 280

Categorization

• SHARE: Nerdy fact that most object ringing dies to friction not sound — appealing to an acoustics/audio engineer friend.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that very little of a vibrating object’s energy ever becomes audible sound quietly overturns the naive intuition that ‘ringing’ IS the vibration leaving. Subtle and durable.