The decibel scale starts at zero decibels (0 dB). Someone with very good hearing would just barely be able to hear a sound at that level.
To capture the wide range of sounds that people can hear, the decibel scale is logarithmic. On such a scale, values that represent a measurement or quantity aren’t evenly spaced. Instead, they increase by multiples of a specific number.
For the decibel scale, that number is 10. A 20 dB sound is 10 times louder than a 10 dB sound. A typical conversation clocks in at around 60 dB. But a rock concert would be closer to 120 dB. In terms of intensity, the rock concert is 1,000,000 times louder than the conversation. That level of racket can put people at risk of hearing loss.
The “bel” in decibel comes from Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. “Deci” is a metric prefix that means “tenth.” Put the terms together and you get decibel.
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