Ambient noise level

Ok kiddo, have you ever been in a quiet room with no one talking or anything making noise? It’s very very still and silent, right?

Now imagine you’re outside, maybe in a park or on a street. Can you hear the birds chirping or cars passing by? What about people talking or dogs barking? All of those sounds together make up the ambient noise level - it’s the background noise that’s always there around us.

Ambient noise levels can be different in different places. In a library, for example, people are usually really quiet so the ambient noise level is low. But in a busy airport, there are lots of loud sounds like planes taking off and people talking loudly. That means the ambient noise level is going to be much higher.

Scientists might want to measure the ambient noise level to understand how loud it is in different places. They use special tools called sound level meters to do this. By knowing the ambient noise level, we can take steps to control how much noise we’re exposed to and make sure we’re not causing any harm to our ears or our environment.