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sound pressure

sound pressure

5.1
Extra pressure in the air caused by a sound wave that we can measure
  • noun
  • /saʊnd ˈprɛʃər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : presión sonora
  • OSHA regulations limit permissible noise exposure in the work environment to 0.5 hours per day when exposed to a sound pressure level of 110 dBA.
  • sound pressure level
  • sound pressure level increase
  • total sound pressure

Examples

  • Thus, at low and moderate sound pressure levels, the traveling wave is no longer actively amplified.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Sound pressure in decibels indicates how much louder one sound is compared to another.

  • And the time domain representation would be how, let's say, the sound pressure as a function of time would change.

  • And if you graph the sound pressure as a function of time, this is what the waveform looks like.

  • The input to the microphone is the free-field sound pressure generated by an ideal loudspeaker.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The risk from overexposure to sound emanates from a combination of the average sound pressure (decibel level) and the length of time the ear is exposed to the sound.

    Academic text (2008)
  • The vertical axis shows the sound pressure level (SPL) in decibels, and the horizontal axis shows the Fo, measured in semitones.

    Academic text (2011)
  • The transducer is a small but powerful design capable of producing sound pressure level equivalents greater than 115 dB when attached to the incus of a fresh temporal bone.

    Academic text (1998)
  • The sound pressure level in the concert was so high that it hurt my ears.

  • Workers must monitor the sound pressure in the factory to avoid hearing damage.

Synonyms

instantaneous sound pressure
vssound pressure
  • Specialized
9.1

The pressure of sound at one moment at a point

is the same but specifies that this difference is measured in pascals

Antonyms

A complete lack of sound in a place

How High

sound pressure level
  • Specialized
5.1
sound pressure
  • Specialized
5.1
silence
660 2.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

sound + pressure

The term is a straightforward noun-noun compound where the meaning is the pressure associated with or caused by sound; a learner who knows 'sound' and 'pressure' can infer it as pressure related to sound. This compositional logic is common cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'presión sonora', French 'pression acoustique'), so the sense is transparently derivable without specialized exposure.

Etymology

The term sound pressure comes from a simple picture: think of sound as waves that push and pull the air, and pressure as the push on your ear or on a microphone. So sound pressure is the size of that push from a sound, and that's why we measure it to know how 'loud' a sound is.