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Is a sound level of 105 decibels for a few seconds enough to rupture a person's eardrum? (lemm.ee)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca
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In 2022, a Texas family filed a lawsuit against Apple for damaging their son's hearing after an Amber Alert went off while he was wearing Airpods. According to Google, the maximum volume of phone headphones is around 105 decibels. The family are claiming that the son now requires hearing aids after his eardrum ruptured.

Is this plausible?

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[โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

I can answer this conclusively for you, ear canals do not act as neither echo chambers or are subject to resonances for audible frequencies.

If they did you would have a literal ringing in your ears.

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  • [+] 0 points 2 years ago* (1 child)
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  • [โ€“] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Excellent question!

    The energy is typically dispersed by hairs moving, muscles moving, eardrum moving, soft tissue deforming, the hearing system behind the ear drum, your eustachian tube, the movement of the ear pod against your outer ear, and the imperfect seal of the ear pod.

    105 dB is probably the max sound pressure level at optimal seal.

    Also, it's easy to verify, as resonance is literally the reason why violins, guitars and pianos have a ringing sound. Whereas regular sounds do not, because your ears don't have audible resonances (they do have resonances in other frequencies though, just as your eye sockets, lungs and other stuff).

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