AUDIO vi D VIDEO s¥9 D SYSTENAS 32 ay What are the sarenities atcstances of Sane! 1011 Crom 9 Founepeake rH en t emitting i directions oe yaw uniformly ia power of 31 a Solution: Intensi(Y nes 3 | at sm, recta 10 uWire 3 1 hn ne ee fan amplifier increases the intensity of a sound from 4W/m? to SuWh we by a change of iuW/m? or as & change in the ratio of 4:5. The latter method of expressing the ratio tells us farmore about the amplification than the change expressed as difference. Thersfors,nacon we express amplifications ‘and attenuations not as differences but as ratios. h Intensity ratio =} A unit rato o relative ntensiS called Bel and is equal to a ten-fold increase in intensity. of one to ten or 10! fone to 10x 10 or 10° 0 10" 1 Bel corresponds to a ratio 2 Bel corresponds to a ratio o! n Bel corresponds to a ratio of one t The relative intensity in Bels is the log of the intensity ratios. a One decibel (dB) corresponds to a ratio of 1:1.26 or an increase of 26 percent. To calculate 2 relative intensity (R/) in dB use the equation I RI = 101089 7 h Louthess Loudness ana 4ann @ scanned with OKEN Scanneric HEARING i This may be regarded as the definition of the decibel. Negative relative intensities denote attenuation. The human sense of hearing grades lowdness in way which broadly approximates to the decibel seale Fig. 3.3). Also, the decibel happens to he convenient size, heemus itis out the smallest change in intensity which the ear can detect, A further advantage is that relative intensities are directly additive and subtractive When two amplifiers are cascaded their gains multipl c ins multiple to give the overall gain of the combination is thus offen convenient to have a logarithmic measure of pin, which will simply add rmination ‘Thus, when an amplifier contains three stages of amplifi Ay Az and Ay dB, the total amplification A, is given by ion, that is, stages producing amplifications ay Because of the convenience of the dB system of expressing relative intensities, the system has been adopted so that it can indicate absolute values in intensity. This is done by defining a standard intensity and then expressing any other intensity in decibels above this standard level. The intensity chosen is that of 10° Wim’, a sound which is very near to the lowest intensity of sound audible to the human ear. Example 3.2: The intensities ofasound are amplified from 10xW/m?to 150 1W/m?.Calculate the amplification produced in dB. Solution: Relative intensity 10 log IVf,= 10 log 150/10 17.6 dB Example 3.3 : An acoustic panel reduces the intensity of a sound from 60j/m* to 8.0 uW/m’. Express the attenuation in dB. h Solution: Relative intensity = 10log 7 Lobos, = 10(log8 — log 60) = 10(1.249) = -8.8 dB Example 3.4 : Express the noise of intensity 2 x 10% W/m? in decibels above the standard (10°? Wim"). 2x 10% Solution : Relative intensity = 10 log = 3— = 10 log 2x 10°= 63.0 dB 33 LOUDNESS Fora given frequency, the more intense the note, the greater the stimulus to cochlea and the louder the note is, In order to appreciate the conception of loudness, we must face three problems: 48) Loudness is a matter of personal judgement, which may vary from one person to another. ii) ‘The human response to sound energy is not directly proportional to the energy content. “Gi The loudness of a sound is dependent on its frequency as well as its intensity [Although the ear is notable to judge the loudness ratio of two sounds objectively, itis able to judge the equality of loudness Using this ability, we can solve the first problem by having large number of people ‘hake a variety of sound comparisons and can thus, arrive at an average response to intensity. We are then ible to define the response of an average ear, in the same way as illumination engineers define the response o colour of an average eye. Such statistical methods can act as very useful aids to greater precision of neasurement. @ scanned with OKEN Scanner