How does loudness work? I looked up what a decibel was on Wikipedia and my eyes melted. How does measuring the loudness of something work? What actually happens when we experience a sound as really loud or really quiet?
In: Physics
Sound travels in waves. The speed of sound is determined by the density of what it goes through, which is partly why things sound different under water.
Waves have two main features – the amplitude (how tall the wave is) and the frequency (how fast the waves come). A sound is loud when it has a big amplitude. A sound is soft when it has a small amplitude. A decibel is a unit that lets us measure that for sound.
So think about ocean waves. If a big/tall one is coming at you, it might knock you over because it has a lot of energy. A big/tall sound wave is loud because it also has a lot of energy. A tiny ocean wave is just going to tap lightly against your skin. A small/short sound wave is going to be quiet. Both have less energy.
The human ear has fluid and nerve endings that are sensitive to sound waves, and can transmit this information to the brain. The brain learns how to process this and filter out the useful information.
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