Literally. I found out that the volume of sounds detected by the human ear is exponential. Not only this, the volume of the sound generated by electronics is exponential too.

On a computer, set your system master volume to a low level and have the application playing your music (e.g. iTunes, Winamp, etc) set to full blast. Play it and get used to the volume (of course don’t kill your ears). Then set your system master volume to double the original value, and the application to half way to full blast. Notice the difference? The sound is much quieter.

Why? I don’t want to get into the advanced physics of volume, but this fact is really interesting. Almost every natural thing in this world is additive. Light mixed with more light produced brighter light, but as a ratio, not as an exponent. Sound is naturally a wave, which is additive. But interpreted by humans, it becomes a whole different thing. We’ve taken the abstract values of sound and attached meaning. We can’t consciously detect sin or cos sound waves, but we know what metals hitting sounds like.

I’m really like physics.