A) What is the intensity of sound at 148 dB? Units: W/m^2. I found this to be 630.9573445 using Io*10^B/10 in which B= 148 dB.
B)Compare it to that of a whisper at 20 dB. Using the same formula i find this to be 1e-8 but it is marked as wrong.
Please help with B!
I get 6309 W/m^2 for A and 10^-10 W/m^2 for B.
Do you have the correct Io ?
The Io i used was (1*10^-12) for A and (1*10^-10) for B. That was according to my physics book. I got A correct with 630.9573445 W/m^2.
To calculate the intensity of sound using the given formula Io * 10^(B/10), where Io is the reference intensity and B is the decibel level, you need to convert the decibel values to power ratios.
In part A, you correctly calculated the intensity at 148 dB as 630.9573445 W/m^2. However, in part B, there seems to be an error. Let's go through the calculations step by step.
The reference intensity Io is a known value, typically set at 1 * 10^-12 W/m^2. This value is used as a baseline for comparison in the decibel scale.
In part B, the whisper's sound level is given as 20 dB. To calculate the intensity, you need to plug the value into the formula: Io * 10^(B/10).
Io = 1 * 10^-12 W/m^2
B = 20 dB
Using the formula, the calculation would be:
Intensity = Io * 10^(B/10)
= (1 * 10^-12) * 10^(20/10)
= (1 * 10^-12) * 10^2
= (1 * 10^-12) * 100
= 1 * 10^-10
= 1e-10 W/m^2
Therefore, the corrected intensity of a whisper at 20 dB is 1e-10 W/m^2, not 1e-8.