154 Chapter 6 The Human Ear and Voice

to setting the zero point of the scale. When dealing with human hearing, the threshold of
hearing at 1000 Hz is chosen as the reference level. Its intensity has been measured as
about 10-12 W/m2, and its sound intensity level defined as 0 dB.The logarithm (power of
10) definition of the sound intensity level implies that for every increase in the intensity by
a factor of 10 the sound intensity level increases by 10 dB; likewise, for every increase in
the intensity by a factor of 100, the sound intensity level increases by 20 dB, a factor of
1000 corresponds to 30 dB, and so on.
The sound intensity level of the threshold of pain at 1000 Hz (intensity of 1 W/m2)
can be directly calculated using the formula

i i
I m2
SIL = SIL0 + 10 l o g - = 0 dB + 10 l og— (6.2)
/o 10- ^ 2
nr
= 10 log 101Z = 10 X 12 = 120 dB. (6.3)

This can be confirmed by checking the vertical axes at the right of Figure 6-4.
We can go from intensity to SIL, and vice versa. Suppose that we know that the
SIL of a given tone is 20 dB. What is its intensity?

SIL = 20 dB = SIL0 + 10 log-f = 0 dB + 10 l o g f . (6.4)

A) A)
Therefore,

log-f = 2 or f = 100 (6.5)

A) A)
and thus
w w
/ = 100 X 10"12—r = 10_1°—r. (6.6)
nr nr

What is the SIL if two such sources are played simultaneously? The total intensity of the
combined sound is just the sum of the two individual intensities, or 2 X 10-10 W/m2. The
SIL is then

2 X 10-10^
nr
SIL = 10 log- = 10 log 200 = 10(log 100 + log 2) (6.7)
1 0 - '^
m
= 10(2 + 0.3) = 23 dB. (6.8)
Here we have used the fact that log (ab) = log(a) + log(6), where a = 100 and
b = 2. We can also check this result by applying the formula with SIL0 = 20 dB and
 6.4 Logarithms and Sound-lntensity Scales 155

I = 2/0. We are comparing the SIL of two sources to that of the original 20-dB tone.
Then

2/0
SIL = 20 dB + 10 log—- = 20 dB + 10 X 0.3 dB = 23 dB. (6.9)
k
In doubling the intensity, the SIL has only increased by 3 dB. This is true no m atter
what the original intensity of the sound.
Combination of three identical 20-dB sources gives

3 In
SIL = SIL0 + 10 log—^ = 20 dB + 10 X log 3 (6.10)
Iq
= 20 dB + 10 X 0.5 dB = 25 dB (6.11)

and the combined SIL increases 5 dB to give a total of 25 dB. Combination of ten iden­
tical 20-dB sources gives

SIL = 20 dB + 10 log-f = 20 dB + 10 l o g ^ (6.12)

k k
= 20 dB + 10 log 10 = 20 dB + 10 X 1 dB = 30 dB. (6.13)

The combined SIL increases 10 dB to give a total of 30 dB. Again we see this conve­
nient result: An increase in the intensity by a factor of 10 increases the SIL by 10 dB.
Combination of 100 such sources of equal intensity gives

100/n
SIL = SIL0 + 10 log i = 20 dB + 10 X 2 dB = 40 dB, (6.14)
k
raising the SIL by 20 dB to a total of 40 dB.Thus, if one source produces a SIL of 20 dB,
it requires 10 such sources to produce a SIL of 30 dB (a 10-dB increase), and 100
sources to reach a SIL of 40 dB (another 10-dB increase). It would require 1000 such
sources to provide a 50-dB SIL, 10,000 for 60 dB, and so on. Similarly, it would require
1012 identical incoherent or random sources, each with SIL of 0 dB, to raise the SIL
from the threshold of hearing (0 dB) to the threshold of pain (120 dB).
The decibel scale of sound intensity level is important, because our ears tend to
interpret changes in intensity of a certain number of decibels as being roughly equal
changes in loudness, independent of the actual intensity of the signal. That is, increasing
the SIL of a 1000-Hz tone in 10-dB steps will be interpreted by the listener as increas­
ing the loudness of the tone by roughly equal increments. This is based on subjective
responses by a large number of people with normal hearing.
We can perform an experiment to determine the minimum observable intensity
variation of a pure tone as we determined the minimum observable frequency differ­
ence; similarly, this quantity is called the intensity JND (just noticeable difference).
Such a measurement, made over the entire audible frequency and intensity range,
shows that the intensity JND is approximately 1 dB over most of the audible range,
varying between about 0.5 and 1.5 dB.The JND is not a certain amount in intensity, but