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The Loudness of Emergency Sirens
In 1912, fire engine sirens reached about 96 decibels when measured 11 feet away. In 1974, it reached 114 decibels at that same distance. Bianca Bosker recently looked at the sounds of modern day sirens and found they reached up to 123 decibels in 2019. That might not sound like a big increase, 96 to 114 to 123, but that's on a logarithmic scale. Every 10 decibels is 10 times the sound pressure to the ears,. And twice as loud in our experience of hearing it.