8. Explain what are decibel levels, give an example of decibel levels with its symbol AND name the tool that represents it visually.

Decibel levels are a logarithmic unit used to measure the intensity of sound. Because the range of sound intensities that humans can hear is vast (from the rustling of leaves to a jet engine), a logarithmic scale makes the numbers more manageable. Instead of dealing with a scale from 1 to 10,000,000, decibels compress this range significantly. Essentially, a decibel measures the ratio of a sound's intensity to a reference intensity (which is usually the threshold of human hearing).<br /><br />A change of 10 decibels represents a tenfold increase or decrease in sound intensity. For example, a 20 dB sound is ten times more intense than a 10 dB sound, and a 30 dB sound is ten times more intense than a 20 dB sound (and 100 times more intense than a 10 dB sound).<br /><br />**Example:**<br /><br />* **60 dB (dB SPL):** Normal conversation. The "SPL" stands for Sound Pressure Level, which is the most common way to measure sound intensity.<br /><br />**Tool for Visual Representation:**<br /><br />A **sound level meter** is used to visually represent decibel levels. It typically has a needle or digital display that shows the measured sound level in dB SPL. Some sound level meters also have a bar graph display that shows the sound level over time.<br />