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The Decibel

The decibel is not, as is commonly believed, the unit of sound. Sound is measured in terms of pressure. However, the decibel is used to express the pressure as very large variations of pressure are commonly encountered. The decibel is a dimensionless quantity and is used to express the ratio of one power quantity to another. The definition of the decibel is , where x is a squared quantity, ie pressure squared, volts squared etc. The decibel is useful to define relative changes. For instance, the required sound decrease for new cars might be 3 dB, this means, compared to the old car the new car must be 3 dB quieter. The absolute level of the car, in this case, does not matter.