system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Could You Blow a Small Speaker (e.g. an iPhone Speaker, Computer Speaker) By Covering It Up Air Tight while Playing It at Full Volume?

I was out golfing with my friend the other day and I was playing some music on full volume on his iPhone 5 when we started to come close to the guys ahead of us. So to be courteous I plugged the speaker with my thumb to cut the music off and then I turned the volume down and took my thumb off. He then got all pissed at me and told me never to do that again because he thinks it can somehow blow the speaker by trapping the sound waves? I don't know, his explanation didn't make any sense to me, and his phone speaker was alright, so that's why I came here to ask science. Can you blow a speaker by covering it air tight while it's playing at full volume?
gpt
I think he believes that the increase in air pressure generated by the speaker would be enough to rupture the membrane that makes the sound.

When in reality, the maximum change in air pressure associated with a sound wave is very small. A jack hammer at 1 m from the source, which is about 100 dB, has a pressure rise of only 2 Pa. That's on the order of 1/50,000th of atmospheric pressure.

An iPod speaker will produce a much smaller amplitude sound wave.

Putting your finger over the speaker won't hurt it. Speakers normally blow out because they're driven to displace the cone farther than it was designed to. This won't happen with an iPod since the maximum volume should have been set such that the speaker can handle it.