Final answer:
A sound measuring 60 phons is louder than one measuring 50 phons, but the phon measure does not provide information about the sound's frequency. The phon is about loudness perception, while frequency contributes to the perceived pitch of the sound.
Step-by-step explanation:
The phon measure does not indicate the frequency of the sound, which is option (a). The phon is a unit of loudness perception and differs from decibels, which measure the physical intensity of sound. The frequency of a sound is perceived as its pitch, but phons only measure how loud a sound is perceived to be. Therefore, comparing 60 phons to 50 phons tells us that the former is a louder sound, but it gives us no information about the pitch, duration, or quality of the sound.
To apply this knowledge to the provided material, it's important to understand that an increase in phons indicates a perceived increase in loudness, but it does not directly relate to the sound's frequency. At a standardized frequency of 1000 Hz, the phon value is numerically equal to the decibel value, but at other frequencies, this equivalency does not hold as our perception of loudness changes with frequency. This was determined by equal-loudness curves based on empirical observations.