Question

Your acoustical engineer sends you a report full of acronyms: dB, NC, STC, Hz and NRC. You might remember what the initials stand for but have to ask your new intern fresh out of architecture school for their definitions. What does he tell you?

Answer

dB, Decibel: Logarithmic ratio of measured sound pressure to the sound pressure associated with the threshold of hearing.

NC, Noise Criteria: Background indoor sound levels recommended for various occupancy types.

STC, Sound Transmission Class: Ability of a partition to resist sound transmission.

HZ, Hertz: Cycles per second, a unit of frequency that describes audible pitch.

NRC, Noise Reduction Coefficient: Numerical average of octave band sound absorption coefficients for the speech frequencies.