Eli5: the differences between decibels (dB) and weighted decibels (dBA)
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Decibels (dB) is the “raw” measure of sound, whereas dBA take into account human perception. A person with normal hearing will not perceive all the frequencies of a sound equally. So dBA takes into account the natural filter of the human ear to give a more realistic idea of the sound’s impact on your health.
dBA used, for example, to measure the loudness of working environments to protect workers (if they’re exposed to X dBA for Y amount of time, they’re required to use hearing protection so they don’t end up deaf).
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