How Sound Level Changes When Only One Firecracker Explodes

If two firecrackers produce a sound level of 86 dB when fired simultaneously at a certain place, what will be the sound level if only one is exploded?

What happens to the sound level when there is a reduction in the number of firecrackers exploded?

Answer:

The sound level when only one firecracker is exploded will be approximately 83 dB.

Explanation: In the context of sound intensity levels, two simultaneous firecrackers create a combined sound level of 86 dB. However, the sound level of a single firecracker would be lower on the decibel scale by about 3 dB, thus approximately 83 dB.

To understand the answer to this query, you must first comprehend how sound levels, represented in decibels (dB), correlate to sound intensity. Any factor of 10 in intensity equates to 10 dB, therefore a sound at 90 dB is ten times more intense than a sound at 80 dB and a hundred times more intense than a sound at 70 dB. For two identical firecracker sounds at 86 dB, the sound level is additive because they are simultaneous.

However, if you only fired one firecracker, it would not be half as loud. It would be less loud, but by exactly how much gets a little complicated. That requires a deeper understanding of the decibel scale, which is a logarithmic scale. In this case, the variation in sound level follows logarithmic rules and therefore the sound intensity of a single firecracker would be less by about 3 dB on the dB scale, which is about 83 dB.