Sound Waves - The Decibel Scale

The Decibel Scale

The decibel scale is used to express the ratio between two values of a physical quantity, in this case, sound intensity

We use the equation \(L_p\)= 20 log10\(\frac{prms}{pref}\) to calculate this ratio is decibels

Where Prms = is the sound pressure being measured and Pref = the reference pressure

To the right is a scale showing how loud certain values on  the decibel scale are.

The Decibel Scale