So, while you may think that a 5 or 10-decibel difference is small, in fact, it is quite significant.Įach time a sound increases by 10 decibels, its intensity increases 10 times, and its perceived loudness increases 2 times.Ĭompared to other, more moderate dB levels, 80 decibels is considered fairly loud. It measures differences between 2 values progressively. In fact, many of the electronic devices we regularly use reach 60-80 dB.īecause of this, it’s a good idea to use a sound level meter or a sound level meter app to monitor the noise you are exposed to daily if you want to prevent hearing damage from sustained exposure to loud sounds. A noisy restaurant, hotel lobby, office, or public places like an airport or a train stationĪs you can see, it’s not uncommon for everyday noise sources to go up to 80 dB.Here are the most common examples of 80 dB sounds: Be it things we come across every day or activities we do regularly, there are many sounds around us that reach this decibel level. There’s no better way to understand how loud 80 dB is than to take examples from everyday life. Being loud, it is a noise level that may harm your hearing if you are exposed to it for longer periods (more than 8-10 hours/day). It’s equivalent to the noise of a busy downtown street. How Loud Is 80 Decibels: Examples of the Sound in Everyday LifeĨ0 decibels is fairly loud. It runs from 0 dB (the threshold of hearing) up to 130 dB (the threshold of pain that can cause instant hearing loss).Ĩ0 decibels is a moderately high noise level, close to the limit of 85 dB considered by official organizations like NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to be the maximum TWA (time-weighted average) limit humans should be exposed to for periods exceeding 8 hours/day.Įxposure to noise levels above 85 dB is considered harmful for human hearing and hearing protection is recommended whenever sound levels exceed this limit. The decibel scale is used for measuring sounds that are hearable to the human ear. In this article, we’re taking a closer look at how loud is 80 decibels, and examples of this noise level to understand if exposure to 80 dB is safe for our hearing or not. How Far Away Can This Sound Level Be Heard?īecause the decibel scale can sometimes be confusing, understanding different levels of noise is easier when we look at everyday sounds.How Loud Is 80 Decibels: Examples of the Sound in Everyday Life.To calculate decibels, use the following formula:, where L is loudness and is 10 -12 which is barely audible. If you were standing one foot away from a loud machine, for instance, you would experience higher decibel levels than if you were ten feet away, even though the intensity of the sound produced remains unchanged. The intensity of a sound reaching a person's ear depends not only on the intensity of the sound produced, but also on the persons distance from the source of the sound. Though reducing the decibel level produced by a sound source from 80 to 77 may not seem like a major change, it would actually represent a 50% reduction in audible sound. Rather, each three decibel increment affects a 50% change in sound pressure levels. A sound with a 50 dB level is not twice as intense as a sound with a 25 dB level. However, the relationship among the values on the decibel scale is not linear but logarithmic. The intensity of sound is measured in a unit called the decibel (dB), which describes the relative intensity of a sound based on a logarithmic scale containing values ranging from 0 to 194.Ī zero value on the decibel scale represents the weakest sound audible to humans and sound intensity increases in correspondence with numeric values.
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