Question

The decibel level of a sound is given by db=10log(ee0), where e0=10-12wattsm² and e is the intensity of the sound. How many times more intense is the sound from (a) than a 70-decibel sound? a sound at 110 decibels is _______ times more intense than a sound at 70 decibels.

Answer 1

A 110-decibel sound is 10,000 times more intense than a 70-decibel sound because each 10 dB increase represents a tenfold increase in sound intensity.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking how many times more intense a 110-decibel sound is compared to a 70-decibel sound. Using the decibel formula dB = 10log(e/e0), where e0 is the threshold intensity of 10-12 W/m2 and e is the sound intensity. Given every 10 dB represents a 10-fold increase in intensity, a 40 dB difference (110 dB - 70 dB) would thus be 10,000 times (104 times) more intense because 40 dB/10 dB = 4, and 104 = 10,000.