DECIBEL

Decibel

The decibel is a logarithmic unit used to express the ratio between two values of a physical quantity . One of these quantities is often a reference value, and in this case the dB can be used to express the absolute level of the physical quantity. The decibel is also commonly used as a measure of gain or attenuation, the ratio of input and output powers of a system, or of individual factors that contribute to such ratios. The number of decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of the two power quantities. A decibel is one tenth of a bel, a seldom-used unit named in honor of Alexander Graham Bell.

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decibel

Noun

  1. A common measure of sound intensity that is one tenth of a bel on the logarithmic intensity scale. It is defined as dB = 10 * log10(P 1/P 2), where P1 and P2 are the relative powers of the sound.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: decibel
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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