Sound with intensity larger than 120 dB appears painful to a person. A small speaker delivers 2.0 W of audio output. How close can the person get to the speaker without hurting his ears?
40 cm
Let's say the person can get to a closest distance of x.Then intensity at the distance I.
I = powersurface area=24πx2
Loudness, β = 10 log(II0) = 10 log (24πx2 × 1012)
|(I0 = 1.0 × 10−12 ω m−2)|
βmax = 120
120 = 10 log10(24πx2 × 10−12)
x = 0.4m