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One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

theguardian.com

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Re: One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

#51

Post by Hortinstein »

xrd wrote: post #10

Tampa Bay is having a lot of problems with noise ( https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228286349/south-tampa-myster... ) that none of the neighbors can figure out. Some speculate on a party boat with speakers. Some are speculating is it the black drum fish ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_drum ) making loud noises when mating.

I came here hoping someone would mention this, it's really strange and for a while I had just attributed it to the Air Force base traffic or Tampa International nearby, but it keeps coming up. Always interesting to learn more

Re: One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

#52

Post by HPsquared »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #21

Seems like very misleading science reporting. It relies on the wow factor of a 12mm fish producing a sound as loud as what many people would associate with a jet engine (>140db). - Sound levels are usually assumed to be measured 1m away. For the fish, it’s measured one body length away (inverse square law applies) - Jet engines are often measured from many meters away (again inverse square law) - The fish’s sound is…

Also it's underwater. I bet if someone tried to fire a gun underwater, the pressure wave (sound) would be louder than usual.

Re: One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

#53

Post by HPsquared »

ssl-3 wrote: post #42
huimang wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pedantic nitpick: it's not nonsense if the common person understands the meaning. Your average english speaker uses "decibels" to mean "dBSPL" since most people aren't aware of the other ones.

It's still nonsense and devoid of meaning, and the nonsense has nothing to do with the unit presented or any simplification of that unit. Sound pressure level measurements relate to the pressure at a point in space, and do not relate -- by themselves -- to the total sound energy being produced by a thing. I can make an SPL measurement, in air, that is ~6dB higher or lower by halving or doubling (respectively) the dis…

An underwater gunshot at 12mm would probably break any normal microphone.

Re: One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

#54

Post by Lammy »

xrd wrote: post #10

Tampa Bay is having a lot of problems with noise ( https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228286349/south-tampa-myster... ) that none of the neighbors can figure out. Some speculate on a party boat with speakers. Some are speculating is it the black drum fish ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_drum ) making loud noises when mating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum

Re: One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

#56

Post by [deleted] »

reaperman wrote: post #46
NoPicklez wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so and I don't see any mention of it being compared to a jet engine. The article compares it to a sledgehammer, ambulance siren or a gunshot. A gunshot of which is not a continuous sound. Regardless, it is impressive that a 12mm fish can produce such a loud sound regardless of whether it is continuous and/or throughout our frequency range of hearing.

It really does matter how far away the sound measurement is taken. 12mm vs. 1000mm away is not trivial for this "decibel" number to make any sense, contextually. 140dB at 12mm is equivalent to 100db at 1000mm. So that's 20dB less than an "ambulance" or "jackhammer" as listed here[0]. Which definitely would make the article misleading. 0: https://noiseawareness.org/info-center/common-noise-levels/

[deleted]

Re: One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

#58

Post by ssl-3 »

HPsquared wrote: post #53
ssl-3 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still nonsense and devoid of meaning, and the nonsense has nothing to do with the unit presented or any simplification of that unit. Sound pressure level measurements relate to the pressure at a point in space, and do not relate -- by themselves -- to the total sound energy being produced by a thing. I can make an SPL measurement, in air, that is ~6dB higher or lower by halving or doubling (respectively) the dis…

An underwater gunshot at 12mm would probably break any normal microphone.

It sure seems likely that it would convert a transducer into a transdonter, doesn't it?

Re: One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot

#59

Post by ktm5j »

huimang wrote: post #33
kdfjgbdfkjgb wrote: post #24

"produces sounds that exceed 140 decibels" is a nonsense statement. They probably meant dBSPL.

Pedantic nitpick: it's not nonsense if the common person understands the meaning. Your average english speaker uses "decibels" to mean "dBSPL" since most people aren't aware of the other ones.

Honestly, I don't think you're the one being pedantic here.
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