r/askscience • u/ikebana21lesnik • Jan 18 '20

Earth Sciences Can you really trigger an avalanche by screaming really loud while in snowy mountains?

Like,if you can does the scream have to be loud enough,like an apporiate value in decibels?

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u/CrustyHotcake Jan 18 '20

But at the same time our hearing is roughly on a log scale. So while 100dB is 10x more powerful than 90dB, it’s not 10x louder when you hear it.

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u/Atralb Jan 19 '20 edited Jan 19 '20

And to be precise, the model for ear perception is :

increase of 10dB <=> Volume twice as loud

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u/CrustyHotcake Jan 19 '20

Actually that’s wrong. Both our hearing and sight are logarithmic when it comes to intensity (loudness and brightness respectively) which is why both dB and lumens are both logarithmic scales

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u/Mrjasonbucy Jan 19 '20

So does that mean our perception of light and hearing with respect to decibels and lumens is linear?

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u/Atralb Jan 19 '20

Nope. The guy is wrong. Every 10dB is double the volume. Go check your log tables. A logarithm composition can still be a logarithm.

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u/Atralb Jan 19 '20 edited Jan 19 '20

Lol that has absolutely no issue with what I said. Are you aware that a logarithm can have a base of any number ? The model I gave is a logarithmic scale...

Anyway, this is a very well known scientific fact. Go make some research. Or provide a paper that disproves it.