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In Macbeth, the main character despairs that life is ultimately a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. This month, all we have time for is the sound part.

 

Sound waves, we all know, are created by vibrations from something, vocal cords or Cicada wings, or whatever. When those sound waves encounter an ear, they are carried by nerves to the brain.

 

The eighteenth century Irish philosopher, George Berkeley considered this question: if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Nowadays, he would have to ask, does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it, or record it, and post it on tik tok or you tube? Interesting question, but no longer relevant. Yes, there is sound. Case closed.

I like one of Berkeley’s other quotes: Few men think; yet, all have opinions.

 

The intensity of sound is measured in decibels, ranging from 0 to 194, with 194 being the loudest sound possible in Earth’s atmosphere. Above that level, sound waves become shock waves. Krakatoa, the famous volcano that exploded August 27, 1883 produced 310 decibels.

 

The decibel scale, like the Richter scale, is logarithmic, such that 20 decibels has not just twice, but ten times, the energy as 10 decibels (even though it might not actually sound ten times louder). An increase of just three decibels results in twice as much sound energy. Sounds above 85 decibels are considered dangerous as they contribute to hearing loss. Noises like a vacuum cleaner, a noisy restaurant, or a hairdryer are around 80 to 90 decibels. Imagine the sound energy in a packed soccer stadium. Concerts are frequently loud. Use this free online decibel meter to measure the loudness where you are.

 

An Australian man recently broke the record for loudest noise produced by human at 122 decibels.

 

Another Australian man owns the record for loudest belch ever recorded at 112.4 decibels.  But it was a man in Austria (not Australia) credited with the burp heard round the world.

 

Which begs the philosophical question (besides the one about why Australians and Austrians are so loud): if you let loose with a really amazing belch and there is no documentation, does it count? No. It doesn’t. Guinness requires a potential record breaker to submit an application beforehand and have it approved. You can’t just let rip with a stupendous belch and get the record.

 

Planning. It takes planning, people. Life is full of sound and fury...and planning.