So when I got home that evening, I researched on the web to see if my ears weren't deceiving me. True enough, I found a short article on www.m1911.org about this phenomenon... (BTW, this website is full of nifty things on the 1911 handgun. Check it out.)
"So you want to know which cartridge makes the louder bang? Some technicalities are in order first. Sound is measured in decibels (db), much like temperature is measured in degrees and speed in miles (or kilometers) per hour. Like most other units, the bottom of the scale or 0 db, is an arbitrary setting, which by convention is set to be the level of the sound that we can barely (sic) hear, or our hearing threshold, as it is normally known. ...Although loudness is subjective, most people perceive one sound to be twice as loud as another, when there is a 10-fold increase in energy, or a difference of about 10 db. ...Also, it is interesting to note that most people cannot discern any difference in perceived loudness of less than 3 db. That means that the energy in the sound has to double, before someone can notice any difference."
The following is a Table of Loudness from the same article...
So what can we learn from this table?
1.) That the sound that most guns make go beyond the threshold of pain. (As if we don't know that!)
2.) That, surprisingly, the noise that a chainsaw makes is below the threshold of pain.
3.) That a 12 gauge shotgun is louder than a 20 gauge shotgun. (Who cares? I do!)
4.) That the .44 Magnum is one hell of a noisy gun!
5.) That a quiet street at 40dB is not so quiet after all... shhhh...
6.) That damn 9mm Glock was really louder than my 1911!!!
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