Comments on: Where Jet Engines, Football Fans and Eggs Collide http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/02/lucas-oil-stadium-sound/ A Heaping Helping of Food News, Science and Culture Fri, 24 May 2013 17:26:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: Yacko http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/02/lucas-oil-stadium-sound/comment-page-1/#comment-14893 Yacko Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:25:55 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/?p=11285#comment-14893 We think of high wattage audio amps, but the biggest problem in the chain is the speaker which is an exceedingly inefficient transformer, going from electrical to mechanical. ONE delivered acoustic watt at 1 meter radiated omnidirectionally in 3 dimensions = 109dB. A bunch of people screaming is a pathetically small amount of power. A classical acoustic orchestra is an amazingly small amount of acoustic power. Perhaps the loudest opera singers ever can manage between 1 and 2 acoustic watts. In reverse, it is testament to our quiet electronics that tiny signals from microphones immersed in a quiet sound field, say wild bird sounds, can be amplified to high levels with minimal noise. We think of high wattage audio amps, but the biggest problem in the chain is the speaker which is an exceedingly inefficient transformer, going from electrical to mechanical. ONE delivered acoustic watt at 1 meter radiated omnidirectionally in 3 dimensions = 109dB.

A bunch of people screaming is a pathetically small amount of power. A classical acoustic orchestra is an amazingly small amount of acoustic power. Perhaps the loudest opera singers ever can manage between 1 and 2 acoustic watts.

In reverse, it is testament to our quiet electronics that tiny signals from microphones immersed in a quiet sound field, say wild bird sounds, can be amplified to high levels with minimal noise.

]]>