Background noise

High school (ages 12+)
Thinking & Learning

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/background-noise

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary sources?Environmental (water waves, traffic, bioacoustics), electrical (refrigerators, power supplies), and extraneous speech
2. Where does background noise come from?It comes from nature, like waves and weather, from animals, and from human things such as cars, alarms, and appliances.
3. Why does background noise matter?It can hide or change the sounds we need, like in medical tests or underwater sonar, so scientists work to reduce it.

Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): A measure comparing the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise.
Noise floor: The lowest level of background noise in a system or environment.
Psychoacoustics: The study of how humans perceive and react to sound, including background noise.