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From: jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. De Armond)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,rec.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Tesla vs gauss, and other obscure units
Message-ID: <444@rsiatl.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 89 16:15:43 GMT
Reply-To: jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. De Armond)
Organization: Radiation Systems, Inc. (a thinktank, motorcycle, car and gun works facility)
Lines: 23

In article <2917@psivax.UUCP> torkil@psivax.UUCP (Torkil Hammer) writes:
>Nobody used bels either.  But everybody used decibels about sound levels.
>And volume was something we measured in cubic meter.
>Which leads to the next interesting question:  Why is sound level or
>sound level control called 'volume?'

That's easy.  The control varies how many cubic feet of sound get produced
by the speakers.  Didn't you know that the standard bell (of the church
variety) held about 1 cubic foot?  Or that the home version was about
a tenth as spaceous, ergo the decibel?  Of course, if you have a hundred
or so of these decibels, the great pressure of the large volume
of sound, especially the higher density sounds, can cause damage such
as cracked plaster, damaged ear drums and so on.  

Oh yeah, .... :-)

John


-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC                     | Manual? ... What manual ?!? 
Radiation Systems, Inc.     Atlanta, GA    | This is Unix, My son, You 
emory!stiatl!rsiatl!jgd   **I am the NRA** | just GOTTA Know!!!