Also keep in mind that decibels are logarithmic, so 240dB is 10^(24-13) times as...

jleader · on Sept 15, 2015

No, you forgot that the d stands for deci (i.e., 1/10th).

So 240dB is 10^(2.4-1.3) times as much sound power as 130dB.

vonmoltke · on Sept 15, 2015

No, nitrogen's math is correct. The conversion from linear to dB is

y = 10 * log(x)

and the conversion back is

x = 10 ^ (y/10)

Every change of 3dB is a doubling or halving of power. Every change of 10dB is an order-of-magnitude change in power.

nitrogen · on Sept 15, 2015

Right, I did 24-13 instead of 240-130. That's 100 billion times the power.

jleader · on Sept 16, 2015

D'oh! Thanks for catching my error!