How Loud Is Loud?
Scroll to get louder — climb the decibel scale and feel why +10 dB means 10× the energy, not a little more.
1× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Threshold of hearing
0 dB is not silence — it is the quietest sound a healthy human ear can detect, a pressure of just 20 millionths of a pascal. Every decibel above this is measured against it.
1× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Calm breathing
Quiet breathing is around 10 dB — already ten times the energy of the hearing threshold, yet still almost nothing to your ears.
10× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Whisper
A soft whisper at 1 metre is about 30 dB. That is a thousand times the energy of the threshold of hearing, but only about eight times as loud to you.
1,000× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Quiet room
A quiet library or bedroom sits near 40 dB — ten thousand times the threshold energy, and a comfortable backdrop for thinking.
10,000× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Conversation
Normal conversation at 1 metre is about 60 dB. That already carries a million times the energy of the faintest sound you can hear — the logarithmic scale hides just how much power that is.
1,000,000× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Busy traffic
Busy street traffic is around 80 dB. At 85 dB, prolonged daily exposure starts to damage hearing — the point where loud stops being harmless.
1×10⁸× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Motorcycle
A motorcycle or a petrol lawnmower is about 95 dB. At this level, safe exposure drops to under an hour a day before hearing risk sets in.
3.2×10⁹× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Rock concert
A rock concert or nightclub can reach 110 dB — about 30,000 times the energy of normal conversation, and safe for only a few minutes.
1×10¹¹× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Threshold of pain
Around 120 dB — a chainsaw or a siren up close — sound starts to physically hurt. This is a trillion times the energy of the threshold of hearing.
1×10¹²× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Jet engine
A jet engine at 30 metres is about 140 dB. There is no safe exposure time at all: damage can be instant. Every +10 dB siren carries 10× more energy — a 140 dB jet is 10,000× the energy of an 80 dB road.
1×10¹⁴× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Gunshot
A gunshot or firework at close range peaks near 160 dB. A single unprotected blast can permanently damage hearing in an instant.
1×10¹⁶× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Krakatoa eruption
The 1883 Krakatoa eruption was logged at about 172 dB some 160 km away — possibly the loudest sound in recorded history. At the source it is sometimes cited as ~310 dB, but by then it was a shock wave, not a sound.
1.6×10¹⁷× the energy of the quietest audible sound
Loudest possible sound
About 194 dB is the loudest undistorted sound Earth's atmosphere can carry at sea level. Push harder and the air can't get any quieter on the low side, so the wave breaks into a moving shock wave — no longer a sound at all.
2.5×10¹⁹× the energy of the quietest audible sound
You reached the loudest sound Earth's air can carry.
Decibels are deceptive. They look like an ordinary number line, but they are logarithmic: every +10 dB is ten times more sound energy, and roughly twice as loud to your ears. So a 60 dB conversation already carries a million times the energy of the faintest sound you can hear, and a 120 dB siren carries a million times more than that. Scroll up the scale, watch the waveform grow, and feel the loudness.
Sources: sound-pressure levels follow standard acoustics references (dB SPL relative to 20 µPa). Hearing-damage and safe-exposure figures follow NIOSH/CDC (recommended limit 85 dBA for 8 hours, 3-dB exchange rate). The 194 dB ceiling is the loudest undistorted sound possible at 1 atmosphere; Krakatoa (1883) was logged at ~172 dB some 160 km away.
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