I suspect it’s something to do with sounds waves so have flaired as physics, but not sure?
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Humans perceive the world logarithmically, here’s an example to help you understand:
“Are we being attacked by 1 or 2 lions” is much more important than “Are we being attacked by 101 or 102 lions”
So try to apply that for sound
everyone saying sound perception is logarithmic right but I’d also point out, in a 100 person choir not everyone is singing their loudest or even *singing* all of the time. You can get away with singing softer to get a clearer note or taking a breath in the middle of a long one if you have twenty other altos a lot more than if there’s no one else singing with you
Not all singers are singing the same notes. This leads to a concept called “interference”. Sound travels in a wave, picture a wave on the ocean. If two waves are moving in the same direction they will move together and grow into a bigger wave. Meanwhile. If two waves travel opposite each other they will cancel out. The same thing happens with sound waves. In the case of a choir you will have 10 people singing one section of the song those are 10 little waves merging to form a large wave but when they collide with 10 other people signing another section of the song some of the noise gets dampened.
This video explains it well. The super abridged version is the first 25 seconds
Not a physicist, but I am a choir director. And an elementary music teacher too. So, I’ll try to explain it like I would to my kindergartners. Actually sometimes I have my kindergartners listen to my 50some choir and they would not ask this question because they’re minds would be blown especially if they are singing live. Because live music just has that effect on kinders. And 100 people is a lot haha!
The sound a choir makes depends on so many different things. I would say the room they’re singing in, the instruments playing along, the age and ability of the choir, and the song all make the choir sound different. But very simply, if I ask one of my students to sing a small simple melody then ask the whole choir to sing the same thing at the same volume, in real life, no microphones or speakers they will sound that much louder. But most of the time they don’t sound 100x louder because they are instructed to blend their sound, or try to sound exactly like the person next to them which makes singers sing softer so they can hear what their neighbors sound like. Which is very different than how a soloist sings. They are just one voice trying to sing loud enough that even the audience in back row can hear. And most times they are belting, a style of singing that is almost like yelling. Choir singers try not to belt unless the teacher tells them to.
So, not much science there but 5 year olds don’t understand decibels and logarithms and stuff. This is how I’d explain to my kindergartners. (Not that I would understand the decibels and shit myself haha). But down to brass tacks…a 100 person choir does sound 100 times louder. At least that’s what my ears tell me. And my ears have heard many many singers in many different groups.
Your hearing of changes in loudness is on the logarithmic scale. To perceive double the loudness of a loudspeaker of 10 watts output you would need a 100 watt speaker.
This is how human hearing can work from a pin drop or ticking clock all the way up to a rock band or symphony orchestra.
This all depends on what you mean under “louder”.
In terms of Intensity (or in terms of Sound Pressure [squared]) the sound wave would be 100 times more intense.
In terms of human perception and in terms of Sound Pressure Level logarithms come to play, so it would not be.
SPL = 10 lg ( SP^2 / SP0^2 )
So, if new SP^2 is 100 times old SP^2 then
new SPL would be
SPL_new = 10 lg[ 100 x (SP_old ^2 / SP0^2 )] = 10 lg 100 +10 lg( SP_old ^2 / SP0^2 ) = 20 + SPL_old (dB)
Loudness of a sound is basically it’s amplitude(in simple words how big waves it makes) .when 100 people sing together the sound(which is vibrations) increase but the amplitude is not increasing hence it does not get louder.
It is 100X louder, but the human ear doesn’t work that way.
As others have explained, ears don’t work in a straight line. Ears hear on a curved line with differences in quiet sounds being very noticeable. Once you get to the top of the line, it flattens out so 100X louder only sounds slightly louder than 50.
Any explanation beyond that requires high schoool math and is beyond the realm of five year olds.
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