The Subjective Magnitude of Whole-Body Vibration

Abstract Two experiments have been performed to investigate the relation between the level of whole-body vertical az vibration and the degree of discomfort it produces. The first experiment, which employed botli magnitude estimation and magnitude production methods, suggested that the relation between discomfort, ψ and vibration level, φ, could be adequately expressed in the form ψ=kφn. However, the value of n differed greatly between subjects and had o mean value of 113 when determined by the method of magnitude estimation and 1-75 when determined by magnitude production. It is suggested that while the convenient value of unity will sometimes be a sufficient approximation to the value of N the response of all individuals cannot be well approximated by a single value. The second experiment required subjects to adjust the level of a whole-body vibration to correspond to phrases on a four point semantic scale of discomfort. It is shown that the variability in the data obtained by this semantic method is gre...