How loud is a jet aircraft? How annoyed are we by road traffic? How does aircraft noise affect our sleep? Noise is all around us and accompanies technical progress. Noise pollution has gained in importance in recent years. Over 70 per cent of the population feels disturbed by road traffic, but rail and air traffic noise also cause serious annoyance.
Quieter air traffic - a DLR project
Research on the effects of noise. Credit: DLR
For people who live near airports operating at night, sleep interference caused by aircraft noise is a serious problem. In the project "Quieter Air Traffic" DLR scientists are working on reducing noise, for example, by investigating the effects of night-time air traffic on people. This is the largest research project of its type worldwide. It has the goal of using rigorous methodology and a large random sample of subjects representing both sexes and a range of ages to obtain reliable results and precise predictions about the effects of night-time aircraft noise on health and human well-being.
Everyday noise
At DLR_School_Lab you will deal with many issues related to the subject of everyday noise. Is street traffic, a lawn mower or a local wind tunnel really loud? What is the point at which you feel annoyed by noise? Do all people experience noise alike? You'll investigate these and similar questions together with DLR scientists. You'll find out what noise actually is, and get acquainted with the dB(A) scale. You can carry out and evaluate your own measurements using different kinds of measuring equipment. You'll get acquainted with the very newest methods for reducing noise and gain some highly intersting insights into current noise research.