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Perceived loudness of sound is measured in Decibels (dB), which is a logarithmic scale. This means that the actual energy of sound that is 10 dB versus 20 dB is actually 10-fold more energetic, although the perception of sound (and light) closely resembles a human's perception. For example, leaves rustling would be about 10 dB, an everyday conversation around 65 dB, and a military jet far away 140 dB. The threshold of pain for a human is approximately 120 dB.

This relates to intensity (Power/Area) in the equation:

B = (10 dB)*log (I/Io)

Where B is the Decibel level, Io= 1012 W/m2 (Threshold of hearing), and I is the intensity.

The Decibel is used instead of intensity because of the nature of our hearing. Since we have such a large range of hearing, the intensities from the first paragraph would range from 10-11 to 102 .

The Bel is the actual base unit for sound intensity (named after Alexander Graham Bell), but the Bel is so large, it became convenient to use the Decibel, which is one tenth a Bel.

ANOTHER VIEW:

Perceived loudness is measured in sones. This is based on tests where people were asked to compare sounds and assess their relative "loudnesses". (The Bel is a measured value, rather than a perceived value.)

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