The Sun is immensely loud from its nonstop nuclear explosions. The surface generates thousands to tens of thousands of watts of sound power for every square meter. That’s something like 10x to 100x the power flux through the speakers at a rock concert, or out the front of a police siren. Except the “speaker surface” in this case is the entire surface of the Sun, some 10,000 times larger than the surface area of Earth.
In terms of dBA, if all that leaked sound could somehow propagate to Earth… Sunlight at Earth is attenuated about 10,000 times by distance (i.e. it’s 10,000 times brighter at the surface of the Sun), so if 200 W/m2 of sound at the Sun could somehow propagate out to Earth it would yield a sound intensity of about 20 mW/m2 . 0dB is about 1pW/m2 , so that’s about 100dB. At Earth, some 150,000,000 kilometres from the sound source.
I can’t believe Ray Bradbury never got 'round to using those stats. I haven’t read it in a while, but IIRC Golden Apples of the Sun was positively tranquil, sonically speaking.
A 59-year-old man with diabetes mellitus, peripheral vascular disease, hypertension and dyslipidemia was admitted to the hospital for a below-the-knee amputation due to chronic non-healing wounds of his lower extremity. Physical examination revealed a “D.N.R.” tattoo on his chest (Fig. 1). Upon reviewing his code status, he indicated that he would want resuscitative efforts initiated in the event of a cardiac or respiratory arrest. However, he did not want prolonged attempts at resuscitation. When asked why his tattoo conflicted with his wishes to be resuscitated, he explained that he had lost a bet playing poker with fellow ancillary hospital staffers while inebriated in his younger years; the loser had to tattoo “D.N.R.” across his chest. His code status was subsequently documented correctly in his medical record with further explanation of his wishes. Despite his comorbidities, he was relatively active in his outside life and was medically stable during his time in the hospital. It was suggested that he consider tattoo removal to circumvent future confusion about his code status. He stated he did not think anyone would take his tattoo seriously and declined tattoo removal.
An article I read about this pointed out a medical bracelet would be a better way to communicate this, since it more clearly shows the wearer’s current intent.
If I ever have to get a limb removed I’m definitely doing the tattoo thing though.
I’m not proposing that anybody actually listen to this, but play the video silently for the first fifteen seconds or so and check out the lead singer’s T-shirt. That’s unexpected.