Definition
According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, "noise" is defined as: 1. Loud, confused, or senseless shouting or outcry; 2. Any sound that is undesired or interferes with one's hearing of something. It is derived from the Latin word nausea.
Sound Basics
Sound travels in waves through the air like waves through water. The higher the wave, the greater its power. The greater the number of waves a sound has, the greater its frequency or pitch.
The strength of sound, or sound level, is measured in decibels (dB). The frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) (cycles per second). The human ear does not hear all frequencies. Normal hearing ranges from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz or, roughly, from the lowest note on a great pipe organ to the highest note on a violin. Our ears hear very low and very high pitched sounds more faintly than those sounds in our normal conversation pitch, between 300 and 4,000 Hz.
The decibel scale is logarithmic (based on powers of ten), not linear like a ruler. Therefore, a small increase in decibels represents a great increase in intensity. For example, while 10 decibels is 10 times more intense that one decibel, 20 decibels is 100 times more intense (10 X 10, rather than 10 + 10), 30 decibels is 1,000 times more intense (10 X 10 X 10), and so on. The sound intensity multiplies by 10 with every 10-decibel increase. The reason for such a scale is simply that the human ear is sensitive over such a wide range of acoustic energy that the numbers involved had to be compressed for convenience.
In some ways, the decibel scale resembles the Richter scale for earthquakes. A small numerical increase represents a great increase in intensity.
The ear can detect a very slight change in noise intensity. Even a small reduction in decibels then can make a difference.
Sound Levels
DECIBEL LEVELS - a decibel (dB) is a unit of measurement of sound intensity
The decibel (dB) table below compares some common sounds and shows how they rank in potential harm to hearing. 70 dB is the point at which noise begins to harm hearing. To the ear, each 10 dB increase seems twice as loud.
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SOUND LEVELS & HUMAN RESPONSE |
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Common Sounds |
Noise level (dB) |
Effect |
| Rocket launching pad (no ear protection) |
180 | Irreversible hearing loss |
| Carrier deck jet operation Air raid siren |
140 | Painfully loud |
| Thunderclap | 130 | |
| Jet takeoff (200 ft) Auto horn (3 ft) |
120 | Maximum vocal effort |
| Pile driver Rock concert |
110 | Extremely loud |
| Garbage truck Firecrackers |
100 | Very loud |
| Heavy truck (50 ft) City traffic |
90 | Very annoying Hearing damage (8 hrs) |
| Alarm clock (2 ft) Hair dryer |
80 | Annoying |
| Noisy restaurant Freeway traffic Business office |
70 | Telephone use difficult |
| Air conditioning unit Conversational speech |
60 | Intrusive |
| Light auto traffic (100 ft) | 50 | Quiet |
| Living room Bedroom Quiet office |
40 | |
| Library | 30 | Very quiet |
| Soft whisper (15 ft) | ||
| Broadcasting studio | 20 | |
| 10 | Just audible | |
| 0 | Hearing begins | |
The sound information provided above comes from the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse website.
