| UNIT : Unit : Number 03 : Decibels - Logarithmic Unit : Unit Conversion Tool
Description : Convert between decibel units.
Standard Unit : STD unit decibel [dB].
Discussion : The bel and decibel are measurement units based on the base 10 logarithm. The bel was originally developed by the Bell Telephone Laboratory to describe the power loss in telephone cables, and is named in honour of the companies founder Alexander Graham Bell. The decibel (a tenth of a bel) is now more commonly used as a unit. The decibel is commonly used for electronic and acoustic measurements. The decibel is calculated differently depending on whether the field strength or power is being measured (power is proportional to the field strength squared).
For field strength:
db = 20 log10(v/vo)
where
v = field strength
vo = reference field strength
For power
db = 10 log10(w/wo)
where
w = power
wo = reference power
Decibels are thus independent of whether the field strength or power is being measured. Similarly for acoustics, the acoustic pressure and acoustic power (which is proportional to the pressure squared) are calculated differently.
Units :
- bel - 10 decibel [ B ]
- centibel [ cB ]
- [STD] decibel [ dB ]
- millibel [ mB ]
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