if someone’s talking, and someone’s standing close, and someone is standing further, would increasing the number of closer people reduce the voice the further person hears?

Question

Basically Are sound waves consumed with more ears or do they stay the same?

In: Physics

Answer 1

No, because the sound one hears is already just a tiny part of the total sound.

Sound spreads in every direction, regardless if there is someone to “hear” it. Some things can reflect and redirect sound in a direction but ultimately the sound just spreads thinner and thinner and is absorbed by stuff in the environment. If the “stuff” that absorbs the sound is an eardrum that is known as “hearing”.