Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: SkepticalDebunker on 10/05/2024 12:54:51
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A teenager in Texas has been spending the past two years suing Apple after claiming that an Amber Alert on his Airpods caused his eardrums to rupture. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10830803/Boy-suffered-ruptured-ear-drum-hearing-loss-Apple-AirPods-blared-Amber-Alert.html
He's now claiming he now requires a hearing aid and he has other symptoms.
Most sources I could find say that eardrum rupture happens with a sound intensity of 150 dB and up. Are the Airpods capable of this? This sounds like it should be really easy to confirm or debunk the teenager's claim that it was the Airpods which did this. Get a sound level meter, put it right up against the Airpod as it's playing on max volume (to simulate an eardrum right up against the Airpod) and see if the sound is anywhere close to 150 dB.
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85dB: enough to cause hearing loss within two hours. (https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/what_noises_cause_hearing_loss.html)
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85dB: enough to cause hearing loss within two hours. (https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/what_noises_cause_hearing_loss.html)
The kid isn't claiming he has only hearing loss from listening to his Airpods over extended periods. He's claiming that an Amber Alert instantaneously ruptured his eardrums. According to the CDC a sound over 120 dB will cause instant hearing damage (but not eardrum rupture). 150 dB will cause eardrum rupture.
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You already got an answer to this. Your audiologist friend also explained the sheer impossibility of this. Exposure to loud sounds from a personal audio system will degrade one's hearing over time but eardrum rupture is not a possibility. Maybe a 100watt compression driver pressed against the ears and driven at max volume MIGHT be able to do this, but not with a personal audio system.
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If things went wrong enough...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_wire_method