Are Lpeak and Lmax Different?

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Newcomers to the field of acoustics are often overwhelmed by the number of different level metrics used to characterize environmental and community noise. To make matters worse, almost all of these metrics are abbreviated with capital Ls and reported in units of decibels. The purpose of this article is to help distinguish between three of these Ls: Lpeak, Lmax, and Lmin. Of the three, Lpeak is the easiest to understand, so we’ll start there.

Lpeak

Lpeak stands for peak level. The peak ...

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Superpowers of the Ear: The Inner Ear

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While both the outer ear and middle ear (which were discussed previously) are amazing and complex, the inner ear is perhaps the most amazing and most complex. While the world of the outer ear and middle ear are full of air, the world of the inner ear is filled with watery fluids. So, are you ready to take a plunge into the aquatic world of the inner ear?

For the sake of simplicity today, we will divide the inner ...

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Superpowers of the Ear: The Middle Ear

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In a previous article we learned about the superpowers of the outer ear and promised we would tell you more about the middle ear, as well as that little drumhead at the end of your ear canal—the tympanic membrane.

The middle ear is a pocket of air bounded by the ear drum on the outer side and the cochlea on the inner side. The middle ear is home to the three smallest named bones in the human body: the malleus, ...

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Superpowers of the Ear: The Outer Ear

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You may have heard people talk about the ear in three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. But have you ever wondered why there are three parts in the first place? Why not just attach a nerve to the eardrum and call it good? The answers to these questions might surprise you.

While each part of the ear has an important function, in this post we are going to explore the superpowers of the outer ear.

The ...

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Anatomy of a Sound Wave

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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 ...

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