A violin plays a melody line and is then joined by nine other violins, all playing at the same intensity as the first violin, in a repeat of the same melody.
(a) When all of the violins are playing together, by how many decibels does the sound level increase?
Answer: 10 dB.
Sooo....my question is...
(b) If ten more violins join in, by how many decibels does the sound increase over that for the single violin?
2007-04-07 16:53:04 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Intensity is a multiplicative function, while decibels is exponential. So going from 10 to 20 violins increases the intensity by a factor of 2, but a factor of 2 on the decibel scale corresponds to 3 decibels. In fact, to raise the decibels by another 10, you will need 100 violins total.
2007-04-07 16:58:16 · answer #1 · answered by cattbarf 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
10 decibels corrisponds to a tenfold increase in intensity.
To calculate the number of decibels in a two-fold increase.
10 times the log (base 10) of 2. It's about 3 as catbarf said.
2007-04-07 17:05:23 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋