How does the decibel scale work? Why aren’t 20 decibels just twice as loud as 10, 200 twice as loud as 100, etc.?

Question

How does the decibel scale work? Why aren’t 20 decibels just twice as loud as 10, 200 twice as loud as 100, etc.?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Because decibels work on a log 10 scale, so going from 10 to 11 is ten times as loud. This is because there is such a large range of sounds that we encounter in everyday life that at going up in volume by ten times isn’t that much of a change