Human hearing:
- better measured on a logarithmic scale
- amplitude is often expressed in decibels (dB).
The Bel is a logarithmic scale,
- named after telecommunications pioneer, Alexander Graham Bell.
- used to compare two quantities: the difference between
and
is defined as
The decibel is
- more convenient for expressing relative amplitudes of sound
(or, e.g., the power gain of an amplifier).
- defined as one tenth of a Bel:
- to convert from Bel to dB, multiply by 10.
``Music 171: Sinusoids''
by Tamara Smyth,
Department of Music, University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
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Copyright © 2019-10-01 by Tamara Smyth.
Please email errata, comments, and suggestions to Tamara Smyth<trsmyth@ucsd.edu>