There are 2 messages totalling 58 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Air to bone transmission characteristics (2)
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Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 20:28:45 +0000
From: Neil Todd <todd@FS4.PSY.MAN.AC.UK>
Subject: Air to bone transmission characteristics
Dear List
As some of you will know I have been interested in the physiology and
perception of loud sounds and music. I wonder if anyone could point me to
some literature in relation to the transmission of sound from air to bone.
I am particularly keen to find out what are the transfer characteristics of
the skull. I have read somewhere that the approximate difference in HL
between air and bone conducted hearing is about 40 dB. Thus with a naive
kind of calculation one might expect that with perfect ear plugs (or total
loss of the middle ear) that if you were standing in front of a loud rock
band playing at 120 dB SPL that you would perceive this to be about 80 dB.
Is this any where near the truth?
Any help gratefully received.
Neil Todd
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Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 16:08:15 -0500
From: Mike Ravicz <mer@EPL.MEEI.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Air to bone transmission characteristics
...transmission of sound from air to bone.
Elliott Berger has done quite a bit of work on this recently, and Stefan
Stenfelt and we have looked it some as well. Our recent paper [J Acoust
Soc Am 109: 216-231 (2001)] includes several useful references, including
Berger's "Laboratory attenuation of earmuffs and earplugs both singly and
in combination" [Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 44: 312-329 (1983)], Schroeter and
Poesselt [J Acoust Soc Am 80: 505-527 (1986)], and Khanna et al. [J Acoust
Soc Am 60: 139-154 (1976)]. Berger had a paper Wed. at the ASA conference
[3aNS4, p. 2294] that I believe touches on these issues. You may find
Stenfelt's recent paper [J Acoust Soc Am 111: 947-959 (2002)] useful. The
military has been quite interested in sound transmission as well.
I have read somewhere that the approximate difference in HL
between air and bone conducted hearing is about 40 dB.
Is this any where near the truth?
Pretty close - the difference is frequency dependent, and the minimum is
38-40 dB near 2 kHz.
Mike Ravicz, Eaton-Peabody Lab., Mass. Eye & Ear Inf., Boston MA 02114 USA
+1 (617) 573-5591/3747; FAX +1 (617) 720-4408; mer@epl.meei.harvard.edu
"The ears are the vestibule of the soul." - Zippy
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End of AUDITORY Digest - 2 Dec 2002 to 6 Dec 2002 (#2002-205)
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