Decibel Levels

From low to high, here's how loud things are.
All are listed in decibels.




-20 One human talking from 20 miles away
-4 Ticking of a wristwatch from 3 feet away
0 Threshold of human hearing, A mosquito from 10 feet away
10 Rustling of leaves
15 A pin drop 3 feet away
30 Quite library
40 Quite room, Whisper
50 Rainfall, Restaurant inside
60 Human Conversation, Dishwasher
70 Traffic, Vacuum cleaner
80 Alarm clock
85 Start of damage to human ear
85 City traffic (inside car)
90 Lawnmower, Train whistle
95 Subway train
100 Snowmobile, Chain saw, Ave. car stereo at max
110 Rock music, Symphony orchestra
120 Jet airplane
120 Amplified rock music
128 Loudest scream ever recorded
130 Jackhammer, 200 person marching band
135 Firearms, large train horn
140 Air raid siren, Severe damage to Human ear begins
145 Human vision begins to blur
147 Formula one race car
150 Rock music peak
154 Toy balloon popping
163 Whale song
164 NHRA Nitro fueled Dragster.
165 Thunder (normal)
171 Worlds loudest car stereo
175 1 ton of TNT at 250 feet
194 Any sound above this is technically a shock wave
202 Human death from sound
207 250 pound bomb
212 Sonic boom (average jet)
215 Exhaust from space shuttle launch, Thunder (loud)
220 Saturn 5 Rocket taking off
235 1 ton of TNT at 10 feet away
240 Tornado (Fujitsu scale of 5)
247 Max sound possible created by a TNT explosion
248 Atomic bomb 12 - 15 kilotons dropped on Hiroshima
257 Nuclear bomb 1 megaton
278 Nuclear bomb 15 Megatons (test Bravo)
282 Hydrogen bomb 57 Megatons (largest detonated)
286 Mt. Saint Helens volcano eruption
302 Tungusta Siberia meteor (Blew down houses 600 miles away)
310 Krakatoa Volcano eruption (heard 3100 miles away)
320 Tambora Volcano eruption (14,000 Megatons)

Increasing a sound intensity by a factor of 10 raises its level by 10 dB; increasing it by a factor of 100 raises its level by 20 dB; by 1,000, 30 dB and so on. If you increase a sound by 10 decibels, the human ear hears a doubling in sound. So a vacuum cleaner is twice as loud as a dishwasher.