Definition:Decibel
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Definition
Definition 1
The decibel is a unit for comparing levels of power.
Definition 2
The decibel is a unit for comparing levels of intensity of sound.
It is equal to $10$ times the logarithm base $10$ of the ratio of the intensity of the sound with respect to the intensity of a reference sound (usually taken to be the lowest audible sound of the same frequency).
Conversion Factors
| \(\ds \) | \(\) | \(\ds 1\) | decibel | |||||||||||
| \(\ds \) | \(=\) | \(\ds \dfrac 1 {10}\) | bel |
Symbol
The symbol for the decibel is $\mathrm {dB}$.
Also see
Source of Name
This entry was named for Alexander Graham Bell.