Sound is detected when a sound wave causes the eardrum to vibrate. Typically, the diameter of the eardrum is about 8.4 mm in humans. How much energy is delivered to your eardrum each second when someone whispers 20dB a secret in your ear?

Multiply the eardrum area by the sound intensity (Power/Area) that corresponds to 20 dB. It is a factor of 100 above the 0 dB reference level of 10^-12 W/m^2.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_intensity
for further details

To calculate the energy delivered to your eardrum each second when someone whispers a secret in your ear at 20dB, you need to convert the sound level into power or energy units.

First, let's convert the decibel (dB) value to a power ratio using the formula:

Power Ratio = 10^(dB/10)

For 20dB, the power ratio will be:

Power Ratio = 10^(20/10) = 10^2 = 100

Now that we have the power ratio, we need to relate it to the energy delivered to the eardrum. Energy can be calculated by multiplying the power by time.

Since the problem asks for the energy delivered each second, we will consider a time interval of 1 second.

Energy Delivered = Power Ratio * Time Interval

Energy Delivered = 100 * 1 = 100 Joules

Therefore, the energy delivered to your eardrum each second when someone whispers a secret at a sound level of 20dB is 100 Joules.