An anechoic chamber can be considered similar to a precision acoustical measurement instrument, providing a free-field environment without noise interference or sound reflection. In an ideal free-field environment, the inverse square law would function perfectly. This means that the sound level from a spherically radiating sound source decreases by 6dB for each doubling of distance from the source. For a free field to exist with perfect inverse square law characteristics, room boundaries must have a sound absorption coefficient of unity at all angles of incidence. In practice this is usually not quite perfect and deviations from the inverse square law are to be expected.






