Strategies to Hear for a Lifetime: 2. Walk Away
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2Walk Away

Person walking away from soundIncreasing the distance from the source of the sound reduces the amount of sound energy reaching your ears. Sound amplitude is lower the further away you move.
Simply increasing the distance between your ears and a noise source is a good strategy for protecting your hearing. Remember the Inverse Square Law that you learned about in the Science of Sound module? This is exactly what is happening when you use this strategy.
Walk away yellow street sign

The increased distance from the source of the sound, reduces the amount of sound energy reaching your ears. The sound amplitude is lower the further away you move. We use this strategy in reverse as well, if we want to hear something better, we move closer to the sound source.

In an open space with no reflective surfaces, sound energy would decrease 6 dB every time the distance is doubled from the source.

Person standing at three distances from brand

In the real world, there are usually reflective and absorptive surfaces, and so you don’t always get exactly 6 dB reductions when doubling the distance.

This explains why you can hear your friends easily when talking in the same room, but it becomes more difficult when you try to talk to each other from a distance. You are further away from each other, and the sound energy diminishes quickly as it travels away from the person speaking.

Make Smart Decisions

Man with a jackhammer
You can use this strategy when avoiding loud sounds that you encounter when out walking. For instance, if a construction worker is using a jackhammer on a street corner, you can easily just cross the street to increase the distance which makes the sound less dangerous to your ears. However, the construction worker must use earmuffs because they can’t walk away from their tool.

2. Walk   Away

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