Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders
194 dB is the loudest possible sounds on Earth at ground level.
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Yes, and that's the value given in Enhanced Senses.
But "the loudest possible sound" doesn't mean that it's physically impossible to put more energy into compressing and rarefying the atmosphere, in the way that it's physically impossible to accelerate a massive body to luminal or superluminal speeds. It means that when you get above that level, you get not sound waves, but explosive shock waves, whose energy density falls off not as the inverse square of distance but as the inverse cube (and whose pressure falls off not with distance, but with the 3/2 power of distance).
It's also worth noting that louder sounds are possible on other media, such as sea water.