Anatomy of a Sound Wave

Posted by:

When most people hear the word wave, they immediately think of ocean waves. While there’s nothing wrong about thinking about a sunny day at the beach, in terms of acoustics, the kind of waves you see crashing on the sand are not like most sound waves. In fact, crashing ocean waves are like the complicated nonlinear waves you find in a sonic boom situation.

Sonic booms may be cool, but if you want to understand sound waves, it’s best to start ...

Continue Reading →
0

What is a Decibel? — Relative Units & Reference Values

Posted by:

The word decibel, abbreviated dB, seems to show up everywhere in acoustics: sound pressure levels, sound power levels, intensity levels, and even voltage levels. With so many usages, it is no surprise that a cloud of confusion lurks around the term. How could one unit describe so many different things? Shouldn’t different quantities have different units?

Well, the firstly it’s important to understand that the decibel is not an absolute unit like seconds or meters—it’s a relative unit. Absolute units can ...

Continue Reading →
1