An important factor of noise pollution’s effects is how sound works. Here is a simple overview. Unlike light, when you clap your hands, you shake air molecules around your hands that make vibrations. This sends air molecules nearby to the ones around your hands to shake and that makes other air molecules that are nearby to shake and so on so forth until the air molecules inside your ears shake too. Space has few air molecules thus making it impossible for sound to travel through it.
Just because sound can’t move through space, doesn’t mean it can only travel through air. In fact, sound travels faster through water! Sometimes, a fast airplane can travel faster than sound (like the Concorde Airplane). This is called breaking the sound barrier. Basically it’s just like the plane beating it’s own sound to your ears in a race. This is really why you hear thunder several seconds after lightning, it’s because sound travels a lot slower than light. Your ears only allow you to hear a limited range of sounds. If the sound waves are too short or too long, we won’t hear them at all. Tighter, shorter, thinner and less dense materials create shorter sound waves therefore making a higher sound. Looser, longer, thicker and denser materials create longer sound waves therefore making a lower sound.
The pitch of a sound depends on the number of sound waves that pass a certain point in one second. Scientists call this the frequency of sound. This is measured in Hertz (Hz). The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch in sound. The intensity, or loudness of sound depends on the amplitude or the height of sound waves. The intensity of sound is measured in decibels (dB).
The quietest sound that the human ear can detect is 0dB and is also known as the threshold of audibility/hearing. A soft sound, like a pin hitting the floor is approximately: 10dB. When noise reaches 80dB, some people find that they cannot concentrate on what they are doing and sometimes get annoyed. They then often make mistakes in their work (this is not an excuse for incomplete homework) and may get angry and tired easily.
The sound of a truck passing by may be as loud as 90dB. If you listen to sounds that are 90dB and over everyday, you may damage your hearing. Planes, loud music, motorbikes etc. all reach up to 90dB. Any type of sound that reaches over 120dB can make people fell bad. This is called the threshold of feeling. Furthermore, at 140dB, people feel pain. It is also known as the threshold of pain! Don’t fret too much if you’re thinking that a dropped pin is already 10dB because a sound 10 times more powerful than 0dB is 10 dB. A sound 100 times more powerful than 0dB is 20 dB. A sound 1,000 times more powerful than 0dB is 30 dB. That’s a lot of difference in sound between each dB level!
If you think that this is confronting, you haven’t heard anything yet. A ground-shaking sound (literally) of 155dB can destroy machines and buildings! Sounds at that level can make cracks appear in metal and then make the cracks grow until the metal shatters! A good way for you to be protected from loud noises is to wear earmuffs when near construction centers.
Just because sound can’t move through space, doesn’t mean it can only travel through air. In fact, sound travels faster through water! Sometimes, a fast airplane can travel faster than sound (like the Concorde Airplane). This is called breaking the sound barrier. Basically it’s just like the plane beating it’s own sound to your ears in a race. This is really why you hear thunder several seconds after lightning, it’s because sound travels a lot slower than light. Your ears only allow you to hear a limited range of sounds. If the sound waves are too short or too long, we won’t hear them at all. Tighter, shorter, thinner and less dense materials create shorter sound waves therefore making a higher sound. Looser, longer, thicker and denser materials create longer sound waves therefore making a lower sound.
The pitch of a sound depends on the number of sound waves that pass a certain point in one second. Scientists call this the frequency of sound. This is measured in Hertz (Hz). The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch in sound. The intensity, or loudness of sound depends on the amplitude or the height of sound waves. The intensity of sound is measured in decibels (dB).
The quietest sound that the human ear can detect is 0dB and is also known as the threshold of audibility/hearing. A soft sound, like a pin hitting the floor is approximately: 10dB. When noise reaches 80dB, some people find that they cannot concentrate on what they are doing and sometimes get annoyed. They then often make mistakes in their work (this is not an excuse for incomplete homework) and may get angry and tired easily.
The sound of a truck passing by may be as loud as 90dB. If you listen to sounds that are 90dB and over everyday, you may damage your hearing. Planes, loud music, motorbikes etc. all reach up to 90dB. Any type of sound that reaches over 120dB can make people fell bad. This is called the threshold of feeling. Furthermore, at 140dB, people feel pain. It is also known as the threshold of pain! Don’t fret too much if you’re thinking that a dropped pin is already 10dB because a sound 10 times more powerful than 0dB is 10 dB. A sound 100 times more powerful than 0dB is 20 dB. A sound 1,000 times more powerful than 0dB is 30 dB. That’s a lot of difference in sound between each dB level!
If you think that this is confronting, you haven’t heard anything yet. A ground-shaking sound (literally) of 155dB can destroy machines and buildings! Sounds at that level can make cracks appear in metal and then make the cracks grow until the metal shatters! A good way for you to be protected from loud noises is to wear earmuffs when near construction centers.