h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

sorry just read backlog. But they really are amazing in what they can do in terms of rubbing their back legs together....who cares whether or not it technically counts as 'vocal'.

is it the drum fish??

Of course I accounted for the loglinear scale. That's why I converted back to Sound Pressure Level on Pascals.

Still...pound for pound, whales turn out to be louder than Brian Blessed.

2nd loudest animal after blue whale = howler monkey. much smaller

I heard them frequently at night when a spent a period in the South American rainforest. Very loud and very erie. But I found it strangely comforting.

Seems that howler monkeys weigh 7 - 10 Kg. But I've not yet found anything on how loud they are.

I reckon we need a new SI unit for loudness per Kg. We could call it the Blessed.

Howler monkeys - vocalizations at night have been measured to be as high as 90 dB and below 1 kHz (Kinzey 1997).

http://ahotcupofjoe.wordpress.com/2006/08/20/howler-monkeys-part-3-vocalizations/

Well that's 0.6Pa, which makes them 0.06Pa/Kg.

Or 12 Blesseds.

Apparently at 143dB it feels like someone's football tackled your chest.
http://www.makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt

While at 156dB...

'IN A MINI-VAN WITH TWENTY 12” WOOFERS AND 19,000 WATTS OF AMPLIFIER POWER. EACH SPEAKERS IS DISPLACING (PUMPING BACK AND FORTH ) 0.75 INCHES IF LONG HAIR WOMEN SIT IN IT, HER HAIR WILL FLY OUT OF WINDOW WITH BASS WINDSHIELD WIPERS FLY OFF VEHICLE 1/2 TO 2 INCHES, DOOR AND FRONT WINDSHIELD FLEXION MAY BE UP TO +-2 INCHES OR 4 INCHES PEAK TO PEAK EVEN WITH EARPLUGS (-30 DB) AND HEADMUFFS (-24 DB) = -54 DB IT’S STILL LOUD'

Somehow the capitals seem apt.

And at 182 dB

"HI I'M BARRY SCOTT!

BANG!"