Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

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  • LoudPop
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2018
    • 146

    Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

    Being a curious engineer, I've always been interested in the loudest of various impulse noises (balloon pop, cap gun, real guns, firecrackers, firework mortar shells, etc.). I know there was a study done a couple years ago saying Balloon pops were as loud as gun shots/shotgun. My experience is that's BS. Anyway...

    I have a analog sound meter and have measured very tightly inflated Q12" and Q16" from a distance of 6 inches with a pin pop. (I know BTP is going to be a bit louder. But, not much as tight as I blew them.) A-weighting dB levels were: Q12" = ~104-106dB and Q16" = ~104-108dB. Wish I had a digital meter (or another meter) to cross check the measurements.

    My opinion balloon pops can be loud but not like high caliber firearms or large firecrackers and fireworks.

    Keep on popping!
  • wildheart
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2015
    • 859

    #2
    Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

    Try a sit pop with a tight balloon. It’ll be about as loud as a blow to pop. Perhaps louder if it’s done quickly.
    How big will it go? Only one way to find out...
    My website: loonerstories.weebly.com

    Comment

    • srob2
      Senior Member
      • Dec 2017
      • 352

      #3
      Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

      Hard to measure as the pop is so brief, but one study (which shows up every time I try to google anything related to b2p) measured an average of 167db for unique 9" btp, pin pop was 155db - and unique 9" is hardly the loudest balloon.

      Perceived loudness is different from decibels, as the length of time and frequency have a lot to do with it. A 167db sound not sustained long (like a balloon), or high or low pitch (not like a balloon) isn't that loud.

      Comment

      • LoudPop
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2018
        • 146

        #4
        Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

        srob2, that's the study I've seen as well and think it's complete BS based on my experiences and measurements.

        Comment

        • wildheart
          Senior Member
          • Apr 2015
          • 859

          #5
          Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

          That does sound pretty high. Only way I could think of it being that loud is if the microphone was literally touching the balloon. Decibels is a logarithmic scale too. 167 is way louder than the 108db that you got.
          How big will it go? Only one way to find out...
          My website: loonerstories.weebly.com

          Comment

          • BalloonBoyUK
            Banned
            • Dec 2018
            • 500

            #6
            Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

            There are too many factors to take into account, when it comes to defining and measuring how "loud" a balloon pop is, including, but not limited too:
            - the balloon's size
            - the pressure of inflation inside the balloon
            - the strength of the balloon once inflated/knotted (or if it hasn't been knotted)
            - the room acoustics the balloon inflation and/or popping is done in
            - what is in the room (carpet, curtains, etc, etc)
            - the size of the room
            - soundproofing (if any) or anything that might act as soundproofing,
            - what has caused the balloon to rupture, burst or pop,
            - your own tolerance to loud pops, noises and bangs,
            - echos, reverberations and other sound frequency repetitions that may enhance/soften the initial pop
            - and many, many other issues.

            All of these will affect how loud the pop might be. Even if you could blow up two completely identical balloons, to exactly the same size, in the exact same manner, under the exact same inflation pressure, the popping of one may still be louder or quieter than another.

            Ultimately, the way to measure it, is too open to question, to be able to scientifically say that if you blow up a balloon by Method A, versus Method B, that one of them will pop louder or quieter, or even at the same (perceived/measurable) sound level as the other.

            No pop can ever be replicated. All balloons will pop differently, and thus, it'll be too complex to try and define how "loud" that pop is, with any kind of scientific certainty.

            So, irrespective of whether someone thinks a study is - as you say - BS, that doesn't actually mean it is BS. It just means you don't agree with that study.

            I could tell that you that sunlight is green, and you may disagree with me, but if I can provide enough evidence to substantiate my claim, then my claim isn't necessarily wrong.

            This is what people call a thesis or theory.

            Theses or theories aren't necesarily wrong.
            Last edited by BalloonBoyUK; 26-04-2019, 19:23. Reason: Correcting spelling and layout errors.

            Comment

            • srob2
              Senior Member
              • Dec 2017
              • 352

              #7
              Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

              A study like this should be easy to replicate, with access to a 46bg microphone or similar.



              My point is subjective loudness and decibels are not the same.

              The same study suggested an adult can b2p 13 unique 9 inch balloons every day without hearing damage or ear protection, assuming the pop is 1/2 meter from their ear. So while those numbers seem high, they aren't.

              Comment

              • lincy
                Member
                • Apr 2019
                • 65

                #8
                Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

                The sound level of balloon pop is pretty high and it was very difficult to measure
                Helium Tank

                Comment

                • AJK64
                  Moderator
                  • Jun 2018
                  • 725

                  #9
                  Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

                  In reply to balloonboiuk

                  "I could tell that you that sunlight is green, and you may disagree with me, but if I can provide enough evidence to substantiate my claim, then my claim isn't necessarily wrong. This is what people call a thesis or theory."

                  Nope. That's almost correct, but any statement in science is a theory, even when 99.9% of evidence is in agreement with it, but if more than a few standard deviations of data are against a theory it is null, so if you stated 'sunlight is green' and had 5 pieces of evidence that it is, but there were 30 (for example) pieces of evidence that countered your own then your theory would be null. Same would be true if the test you used couldnt be replicated with results within a few standard deviations.

                  The balloon volume test can be very easily standardised too regardless of the points you made. You would use a single brand, size and possibly manufacturing batch and test enough to get a good sample size (generally at least a few hundred) and find average bang volumes and how much the loudest and quietest deviate from that average. Pressure levels etc would be unnecessary since you're using the same data set. This would give you a standard volume for that brand and size as a reference point. Sound is measured in decibels (as srob said) and decibels can be accurately measured regardless of subjective perception of "loudness". As long as all tests are conducted in the same environment then all the things like carpeting, balloon being knotted etc are meaningless too.

                  Source I am a research scientist and study biological systems which have a greater variance of data points than the variance found in a balloon burst. If any of what you said was true, science as a discipline would be impossible.
                  Last edited by AJK64; 17-10-2019, 09:49.

                  Comment

                  • SusieDK
                    Senior Member
                    • Dec 2017
                    • 201

                    #10
                    Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

                    Originally posted by AJK64
                    In reply to balloonboiuk

                    "I could tell that you that sunlight is green, and you may disagree with me, but if I can provide enough evidence to substantiate my claim, then my claim isn't necessarily wrong. This is what people call a thesis or theory."

                    Nope. That's almost correct, but any statement in science is a theory, even when 99.9% of evidence is in agreement with it, but if more than a few standard deviations of data are against a theory it is null, so if you stated 'sunlight is green' and had 5 pieces of evidence that it is, but there were 30 (for example) pieces of evidence that countered your own then your theory would be null. Same would be true if the test you used couldnt be replicated with results within a few standard deviations.

                    The balloon volume test can be very easily standardised too regardless of the points you made. You would use a single brand, size and possibly manufacturing batch and test enough to get a good sample size (generally at least a few hundred) and find average bang volumes and how much the loudest and quietest deviate from that average. Pressure levels etc would be unnecessary since you're using the same data set. This would give you a standard volume for that brand and size as a reference point. Sound is measured in decibels (as srob said) and decibels can be accurately measured regardless of subjective perception of "loudness". As long as all tests are conducted in the same environment then all the things like carpeting, balloon being knotted etc are meaningless too.

                    Source I am a research scientist and study biological systems which have a greater variance of data points than the variance found in a balloon burst. If any of what you said was true, science as a discipline would be impossible.
                    Hi,

                    I agree with the above. It is neither hard nor difficult to get a measurement that gives a very good average for how loud a balloon pops. Of course it will be an average, but this is also exactly what is interesting. If you measure the loudness of a specific balloon the measurement will not be an average, however the object that gave this specific measurement will be gone. Wanting to measure how loud a specific balloon will be when it pops is like trying to say what will happen tomorrow. This is a bit difficult indeed, but when tomorrow has passed it is a lot easier. Only trouble is that is won't tell much about what will happen the 'next tomorrow'.

                    About the 'theory' that sunlight is green I think this would be hard to get any experimental conformation about. I can think of lots of experiemnts showing that sunlight contains green light, but this does not mean that it is green light. I guess it was just a bad example though....

                    When it comes to how loud balloons pop in general and the comparision to a shotgun I have seen such claims a lot of times. I must say I find it near to ridiculous.

                    I have several times blown to pop a balloon in the forest and I have also heard shots being fired there. I do understand the idea that the sounds seems about the same. However what damages hearing is not the perception of the sound volume, but the sound intensity (watts pr. square meter). The sound intensity depends very much on the distance from the source to the point of measure (or the ear). Actually the energy depends on the distance squared. This means that if the distance is 3 times bigger then the sound intensity will be 3 squared = 9 times lower. This means that if I hear the sound from a shotgun as being as loud as a balloon I blow to pop, then the intensity of the shot due to the bigger disttance must be quite a bit bigger than the sound intensity from the balloon pop. Lets say the distance from the balloon to my ear is 15 cm and the distance to the gun firing the shot is 15 meters (would probably be much more) then the distance to the source of the shot is 100 times the distance to the source of the balloon pop. This means that in order for the shots sound intensity to be the same as the intensity of the balloon pop will have to be 100 squared = 10,000 times bigger than the intensity from the balloon. There is quite some difference I should say. If we recalculate to dB it would mean a difference of 40 dB. This is btw somewhat similar the difference from the claimed 167 dB of the shotgun to the measured 105 dB from a balloon pop.

                    You could also look at it this way. If it should make sense comparing the sound from a shotgun to the sound from a popping balloon you would have to fire the shotgun at the same distance from your ear as the balloon is when it pops. Let's say the balloon pops at the neck which it usually does when blown to pop - about 15 cm from your ear. If you would like to compare this with a shotgun blast you should also fire the shotgun 15 cm from your ear. I wouldn't recommend that!

                    I have no doubt which will be loudest - both the measured value and the perception btw.

                    I am not sure what purpose it has to exaggerate the loudness of balloons popping to such a degree. Maybe some people who don't like balloons have a hidden agenda of getting them banned. In any case comparing a popping baloon to the blast of a shotgun is highly doubtful when it comes to potential hearing damage.

                    Thank you for reading this - all too long - posting of mine.

                    Sincerely
                    Susie

                    PS. Regardless of these 'tests' I will continue to do my own. These do btw not have any hidden agenda - I just find it cool and exciting blowing to pop balloons - not to mention it being a great turn-on.

                    Comment

                    • AJK64
                      Moderator
                      • Jun 2018
                      • 725

                      #11
                      Re: Sound Level of Balloon Pop!

                      I think the balloon bursting/shotgun comparison was good old fashioned fear mongering and even the research that the media was using as a basis for it didnt actually claim that.

                      What I find fascinating with balloons is how the sound can seem opposite to what you might expect. I love 12 inch uniques and 14 inch tuftex. The tuftex balloons get really huge and tight in comparison to the uniques and I assumed would burst much louder, but they generally dont seem to be louder than the smaller balloons. I've also heard small 10 inches go off with such a loud bang that it leaves my ears ringing after.

                      Comment

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