From: Nathania Chaney Aiello (nathania@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Jan 14 2003 - 17:49:45 PST
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 17:49:45 -0800 Subject: Decibel ratings on tuners From: Nathania Chaney Aiello <nathania@attbi.com> Message-ID: <BA49FE39.89A%nathania@attbi.com>
I have been teaching sound to my AP Physics students and discussing that
loudness is a perception based on the intensity of the wave. I indicated
that the decibel scale was designed so that 0 was the threshold of human
hearing and positive numbers were used for sound that humans (on average)
could hear. So today, a sharp kid brings in the specs for his stereo
receiver and it has a range of "-60 to 0 to 18 dB, in steps of 1 dB." How
is this possible? What is this 0 based on and how can it be reading negative
numbers? Thanks in advance
Nathania Chaney Aiello
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