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The scientific “unit” we call the decibel


Celebrating a rare dumpster fire in the kingdom of science.

What didn’t change from bels to decibels is that the concept describes nothing more than an exponent for a multiplier; the value is meaningless unless we know the base unit and the reference point (e.g., 1 V). I write well-researched, original articles about geek culture, algorithms, and electronic circuit design (+ comparatively few rants about decibels). It’s increasingly difficult to stay in touch with readers via social media; my typical post on X is shown to less than 5% of my followers and gets a ~0.2% clickthrough rate.

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