rodean@hpfcll.UUCP (04/04/84)
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Reprinted without permission from Family Circle:
Deafening Infant Scream
After an outburst of screaming by her 11-month-old baby, a
young mother complained of temporary deafness. Her physician
husband, Dr. Bruce Bostrom, of the University of Minnesota,
decided to investigate. He enlisted the aid of an engineer,
Loren E. Swanson, to measure the sound intensity during a
screaming episode. The results were amazing: When readings
were taken about 6 inches from the child--the average distance
from an infant's mouth to a parent's ear when the child is
being held--peak readings reached 117 decibels. By comparison,
a pneumatic hammer at a distance of about a yard produces
120 decibels; a car horn at 15 feet, 100 decibels. The piercing
loudness of an infant's scream can have a sound level about 30
times louder than that of normal conversation.
New England Journal of Medicine: Vol. 309, page 1194.
I can personally attest to this. Infants can be *very* loud
when they want to be.
Bruce Rodean
({ihnp4|hplabs}!hpfcla!rodean)mark@umcp-cs.UUCP (04/13/84)
Yes, infants can be loud. That's nature and survival for you.
On the other side, ears are highly directional. I find that when
I hold a screaming baby (at house we think it important to listen
to screaming) as long as I don't point my ear at the noise I am ok.
In other words, I look at the baby.
--
Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: mark@maryland
CSNet: mark@umcp-cs UUCP: {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark