ELI5: why are 2 people chanting together at the same volume louder than 1?

r/

Basically the title. If you have a bunch of people who have similar max volumes chanting in unison, it’s much louder than a single person chanting.

If no one is louder than the rest, why is the net effect still much louder?

Comments

  1. fairie_poison Avatar

    Sound waves are additive. The amplitudes of sound waves can be made larger or smaller through interference with other sounds.

  2. XenoRyet Avatar

    Same reason to candles of similar size have a greater light and heat output than just one.

    You’re putting more energy into the system, so you get more energy out of the system.

  3. TobiasCB Avatar

    Sounds are waves. If you push water away from you to create a wave, it won’t be as big as when you do it with someone else. The waves combine into a bigger one.

  4. theyb10 Avatar

    You ever been playing in the water at the beach ducking under waves? Sometimes one wave catches up to another and it becomes one big wave. It’s kinda like that, because sound is just a wave (pressure wave) propagating through air.