Human hearing spans over one billion in power from softest to painful.

Evidence

Among the subtleties is the tremendous range of sound intensities that we are capable of hearing—more than a factor of 1 billion in power from the softest sound to the threshold of pain. Light levels differ by a factor of more than 1 trillion between very bright light in the dimmest light that we can see. Touch is similar; we can detect very slight pressure, or something very heavy weighing 1 million times more. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1995

Categorization

• CANDY: The 1-billion-fold hearing range is a fun, quotable dinner-party number.
• XREF: connects to: Human hearing spans a ratio of millions between faintest and painful sound — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 604