Question

A noise level of 100 decibel would correspond to:

(a) Just audible sound

(b) Ordinary conversation

(c) Sound from a noisy street

(d) Noise from a machine shop

Answer 1

(d) The decibel is widely known as a measure of sound pressure level, but is also used for a wide variety of other measurements in science and engineering. The decibel is commonly used in acoustics to quantify sound levels relative to a 0 dB reference which has been defined as a sound pressure level of .0002 microbar. The noise level of 100 decibel would corresponds to noise from a machine shop.