| Proposal | Outline | Experiment | Analysis |
For my project, I intend to test the effectiveness of several forms/brands of hearing protection (ear plugs, ear muffs, etc.) against sounds of varying amplitudes. I will aim the synthetically created sounds generated by a computer through a speaker at a microphone that will be placed through a hole in a board. The microphone�s reception will be blocked by the different forms of hearing protection. Data will be collected and analyzed using the Audacity software. By the end of the experiment, I will hopefully be able to tell which forms of hearing protection work best at various amplitudes and which one is most effective at blocking sound in general.
Some of the questions that I will be asking in my experiment are:
1. What type and/or brand of hearing protection works best at blocking out sound?
2. What forms of hearing protection are adequate/ideal for certain scenarios?
3. How much can amplitude be increased beyond the human ear's "safe" range of hearing while using hearing protection before the sound is measured as "dangerous?"
I think this experiment is of importance becuase it is to the advantage of anyone working around loud sounds to know what type of hearing protection is most beneficial to them. Knowing what type of hearing protection to use can help prevent hearing loss.
Resources:
Gelfand, Stanley A., Hearing: An Introduction to Psychological and Physiological Acoustics.
I will be measuring amplitude in dB.