Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The horizontal axis shows frequency in Hertz. In acoustics, loudness is the subjective perception of sound pressure.More formally, it is defined as the "attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud". [1]
Equal-loudness contours. The phon is a logarithmic unit of loudness level for tones and complex sounds. Loudness is measured in sones, a linear unit.Human sensitivity to sound is variable across different frequencies; therefore, although two different tones may present an identical sound pressure to a human ear, they may be psychoacoustically perceived as differing in loudness.
A more complex signal also creates more nerve firings and so sounds louder (for the same wave amplitude) than a simpler sound, such as a sine wave. Loudness is perceived as how "loud" or "soft" a sound is and relates to the totalled number of auditory nerve stimulations over short cyclic time periods, most likely over the duration of theta wave ...
The smallest sound that a person can hear, known as the threshold of hearing, is nine orders of magnitude smaller than the ambient pressure. The loudness of these disturbances is related to the sound pressure level (SPL) which is measured on a logarithmic scale in decibels.
Sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the local pressure deviation from the ambient (average or equilibrium) atmospheric pressure, caused by a sound wave. In air, sound pressure can be measured using a microphone , and in water with a hydrophone .
Because subjective loudness was difficult to measure, the Fletcher–Munson curves were averaged over many subjects. Robinson and Dadson refined the process in 1956 to obtain a new set of equal-loudness curves for a frontal sound source measured in an anechoic chamber. The Robinson-Dadson curves were standardized as ISO 226 in 1986.
Sound intensity, also known as acoustic intensity, is defined as the power carried by sound waves per unit area in a direction perpendicular to that area, also called the sound power density and the sound energy flux density. [2] The SI unit of intensity, which includes sound intensity, is the watt per square meter (W/m 2).
The sone (/ ˈ s oʊ n /) is a unit of loudness, the subjective perception of sound pressure. The study of perceived loudness is included in the topic of psychoacoustics and employs methods of psychophysics. Doubling the perceived loudness doubles the sone value. Proposed by Stanley Smith Stevens in 1936, it is not an SI unit.