[SML] Decibels

[Joe Wilson]

S'funny, this came up on Reddit today, referring to someone exaggerating
about an internet ad playing at 500dB.

>The loudest sustainable soundwave in Earth's atmosphere at sea level is
about 194 dB, which would be a longitudinal wave with a compression of 2
atmospheres, and a rarefraction of pure vacuum. A website playing music
through your computer speakers at 194 dB would be more intense than the
Saturn V main engines firing at your face, and it would be clearly heard
from a couple thousand miles away. Atmospheric sounds that are louder than
194 dB are heavily distorted, and are effectively shockwaves. The most
powerful known atmospheric shockwave in human history is the Tunguska event
of 1908, which was caused by a meteoroid or comet fragment slamming into
the atmosphere and exploding a few miles above Earth's surface. The 300 dB
shockwave hit the ground with the force of 5 million tons of TNT, and
leveled 770 sq miles of forest. A 320 dB shockwave has the destructive
force of a 14 Gigaton nuclear bomb, which would clear a crater about 12.4
miles in diameter and 1.33 miles deep. Listening to a 365 dB shockwave
would exert a similar pressure on your head as laying back in your favorite
chair, and resting the moon on your face. A 500 dB shockwave has only been
theorized in black holes and neutron starquakes, and would vaporize your
head, your house, your city, annihilate your country, ignite the
atmosphere, flash boil the oceans, and probably shatter the continent that
you are sitting on. That would be a very annoying popup ad.


-- 
_________________________
Joe Wilson, ATD/Sound
Indian River State College

Adding one more "me too" to the
collective internet consciousness.
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