Feelings are different from person to person. So don't talk of "measuring" the "loudness". You can really measure the sound pressure with a sound pressure level meter. At 8 ft from the speaker sound pressure level (SPL) is 28 decibels. What is loudness 4 ft from the speaker? You get 6 dB more level at half the distance r = 1/2, that is 34 dB. The sound pressure varies with distance 1/r from the sound source. There is nothing squared! Scroll down to related links and look at "Sound pressure p and the inverse distance law 1/r".
That means, a higher sound pressure let you ears ache. You can become deaf.
Loudness of normal adult human voice is about 70 db at three feet according to http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/decibel-dB.html
The unit of loudness N is "the sone" and the unit of loudness level (volume) LN is "the phon". Scroll down to related links and look at "Conversion of sone to phon".
crescendo
The sound pressure level of 80 dB is a 10 times higher measure than the sound pressure level of 60 dB. Louder ist not the correct word, because it belongs to psycho acoustics and tells the loudness feeling.
Decibels can compare loudness
Loudness of sound is measured in decibels (dB).
Decibels
Decibels?
Decibels are a measurement of the loudness of sound.
The decibel is a measure of loudness. Frequency is related to pitch.
Just like any other substance in existence, the magnitude of sound or loudness can also be measured. In this case, the standard unit of measurement for loudness is called decibels.
decibels
Decibels
decibels
Sound is measured in decibels
distance is a measure of lenght loudness is a measure of amplitude.