Ric posted:
>You've got me worried, because you're rarely incorrect, but I think
I disagree with you here. I believe decibels are ratios of power.
Power is (voltage times current.) 3dB is double the power, 10 dB is
ten times the power. (logarithmic, not linear.) So 20 dB is 10
times 10, or a hundred, and 30 dB (not 60) is 10x10x10 or a thousand
times the power. Or did I miss something?<
decibels(dB) are indeed a ratio of power. If you look at my original
'thesis' last Sunday, I stated that IF one was talking about a fixed value
load then it was possible to use dB as a ratio of voltage as well. Since
power is proportional to the square of the voltage (for the fixed load) then
a 3dB power ratio is equivalent to a 6dB voltage ratio.
Since Elliot was talking about a noise floor, and therefore a signal
voltage, it is appropriate to talk in terms of the larger numbers.
I DID make a mistake in my mental arithmetic, I should have stated that
10x=20dB. The grand total should therefore be 200dB for 10 thousand million
times.