In Hearing
The pressure at which sound becomes painful for a listener is the pain threshold pressure for that person at that time. The threshold pressure for sound varies only slightly with frequency and can be age-dependent. Additionally, people who have been exposed to more noise/music usually have a higher threshold pressure. Threshold shift can also cause threshold pressure to vary. Prolonged exposure to sound at levels evoking pain can cause physical damage, potentially leading to hearing impairment.
The volume in acoustics refers to loudness. It is a common term for the amplitude of sound, the sound pressure level or the sound pressure. Different values for pain threshold pressure level and pain threshold pressure are found in the literature:
| Threshold of Pain | ||
| Sound pressure level | Sound pressure | |
| 120 dBSPL | 20 Pa | |
| 130 dBSPL | 63 Pa | |
| 134 dBSPL | 100 Pa | |
| 137.5 dBSPL | 150 Pa | |
| 140 dBSPL | 200 Pa | |
Read more about this topic: Threshold Of Pain
Famous quotes containing the word hearing:
“With all the gracious utterance thou hast
Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There is all the poetry in the world in a name. It is a poem which the mass of men hear and read. What is poetry in the common sense, but a hearing of such jingling names? I want nothing better than a good word. The name of a thing may easily be more than the thing itself to me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)