SECOND VERSION
The decibel (dB) is the measure with which we quantify the intensity of the sound.
It is the relative unit used in acoustics, electricity, telecommunications and other specialties to express the relationship between two magnitudes: the magnitude being studied and a reference quantity.
Thanks to this measure, we can know which auditory thresholds can damage our hearing. On the other hand, we must bear in mind that it is not only the intensity that determines whether a noise is dangerous: it is necessary to control the time that we expose ourselves to it.
In this image, we can see the decibels scale and how we can be affected by the decibel level:
A person can hear up to a maximum of 150 decibels: If the sound goes beyond this limit, it could cause irreversible auditive loss in the person.
There are several decibel scales, but we will use the dbA, which is the one that measures the ambient sound.
For the activity, we want that the mBot calculates the decibels of the site where we are. The Sound Sensor calculates an environmental value, so we need to convert that value to decibels.
Once the sound level meter was calibrated, we had to find the formula for our mBot to calculate the decibels. After many tests/errors, we determined that if we divided the value obtained (by the Sound Sensor) by 3.3, we obtained the same result as in the sound level meter, so we managed to solve the problem of decibel detection.
