In order to wake a sleeping child, the volume on an alarm clock is tripled. Under this new scenario, how much more energy will be striking the child's ear drums each second?

A. twice as much

B. three times as much

C. approximately 4.8 times as much

D. six times as much

E. nine times as much

What do I need to know to find this?

you need to know sound power is directly proportional to sound amplitude(intensity) squared

Answer is E.

Volume is directly proportional to amplitude of sound. Energy is proportional to amplitude squared. If you triple the amplitude, you multiply the energy by 9.

To find the answer to this question, you'll need to know the relationship between sound intensity and the energy striking the ear drums. Sound intensity is measured in decibels (dB) and follows a logarithmic scale, meaning that doubling the intensity does not result in double the energy. In fact, a 10 dB increase in sound intensity corresponds to a tenfold increase in energy.

To calculate the energy increase when the volume is tripled, we can use the following formula:

Energy increase = 10 * log10(Volume increase)

In this case, the volume is tripled, so the volume increase is 3. Plugging it into the formula, we get:

Energy increase = 10 * log10(3)

To find the final result, we need to solve this equation.