Glossary entry

Italian term or phrase:

relativa e non assoluta

English translation:

(The decibel is a) relative unit, not an absolute one.

Added to glossary by Franco Rigoni
May 21, 2016 06:41
7 yrs ago
Italian term

relativa e non assoluta

Italian to English Other Physics
Decibel è un’unità di misura relativa e non assoluta. Se 15dB è la soglia teorica di udibilità umana, verso gli 80 dB il suono raggiunge un tale spessore da indurre fastidio; vicino ai 120 dB inizia la sensazione di dolore.

Proposed translations

+3
14 mins
Selected

(The decibel is a) relative unit, not an absolute one.

See the link below, end of first paragraph after the formula.
Peer comment(s):

agree James (Jim) Davis : As a one time student of experimental psychology who has measured decibels in terms of JNDs I can confirm. It is a subjective measurement. Psychology rather than physics.
2 hrs
Thank you James
agree Peter Cox
2 days 5 hrs
Thank you Peter
agree Andres Diaz : I agree. To be more precise, I would not say that it is a relative unit but that it is a relative measurement. The unit is not what is relative to other units, but the values measured are relative ratios. I studied this in both psychology and physics.
2 days 15 hrs
Good observation, as for example in Sound Pressure Levels you have 10 times the logarithm of a square pressure ratio. However dB is the unit conventionally associated to Sound Pressure/Sound Power Levels ...(I used to work in Acoustics). Thank you!!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Grazie"
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search