Something You Would Need To Shout About

(My high school health class covers a wide variety of things, one of which is noise level in the measure of decibels, dB. The first concept the teacher covers is that every 10 increments of dB is 10x louder than the previous increment of 10, meaning that 20dB is 10x louder than 10dB and 30dB is 100x louder than 10dB, if you understand math. This teacher does not. For years she’s been teaching than 20dB is 10x louder than 10dB, 30dB is 20x louder than 10dB, and so on, in that fashion, and so have the students in her classes, or at least none of them have ever argued with her… Until me. There is a question asking, “If 20dB is ten times louder than 10dB, how many times louder is 50Db than 10dB?”)

Most Of The Class: “40 times louder.”

Teacher: “Right!”

Me: “Um.. that’s wrong. Each increment of ten being ten times louder than the previous means that 50dB is 10,000 times louder than 10dB.”

Teacher: *laughs like I just said the funniest thing in the world* “I don’t know where you came up with that math, but that makes no sense.”

Me: *explains how fifth-grade math works* “This is something we learned a long time ago; it’s basic math.”

(The teacher tells  me I am wrong, and that she’s been teaching this for years and knows exactly what it is. I argue with her, and she finally asks if I want her to check her answer book; I very strongly insists she does. When she checks and finds out I am right, she gets red and glares at me before telling everyone:)

Teacher: “Well, it looks like he was right. They must have changed the way these things work this year.”