5 ms·
Sorry if this is a nitpick, but by design, sound doubles in perceived loudness (roughly) every 10dB, and dBa is a calibrated version of dB which is intended to
by dwringer 4y ago
Sorry if this is a nitpick, but by design, sound doubles in perceived loudness (roughly) every 10dB, and dBa is a calibrated version of dB which is intended to correspond to how people experience sound, so that increase is only around a tenth of the figure you gave (although you're absolutely right that it's a lot higher than 41%).
- martincmartin 4y agoYes, but the zero point is arbitrary, so a percentage of dBa is meaningless. You can say it's 14.2 dB louder, or 10^(1.42) more energy, neither of which is very meaningful to the average person.
- mckirk 4y agoSo then wouldn't it basically be 142% louder?
- contravariant 4y agoI don't mind being nitpicked when I'm being pedantic. Indeed you can (roughly) approximate perceived loudness that way, but only the absolute difference in dBa is meaningful, looking at a relative difference in dB is meaningless.
- LeifCarrotson 4y agoRather than using percentages under the noise readings, it would be much more useful to show the delta. If the unguarded fan is at 35.5 dBa, and the turbine guard is at 50.2 dBa, the delta is 14.7 dB. This is the same increase in perceived noise as an unguarded 60 dBa fan and a guard that raised the noise level to 74.7 dBa, not a relative difference of 41% and 24.5%.
- hinkley 4y agoIn that case 36 to 50 is well over twice as loud, right? So while 2500% is wrong, 42% is clearly wrong as well. It's closer to 130% (or 230% if you're not doing additive percentages).