Want to recognize how to take the temperature of all the sea between California and Hawaii ? All you need is the right sound . A especial acoustic proficiency lets mass figure out the temperature of the ocean , and how it might be changing from year to year .
There ’s no real path to take simultaneous temperature reading of every segment of ocean between continent , and so there should be no way to get an median ocean temperature . One technique manages to do just that . It ’s call acoustic thermometry , and it ’s another lesson of physics belong poetical . Because pee is denser than air , sound travel faster submerged . As we get down to very low frequencies , sound also travel more expeditiously . Whales use speech sound below 100 cycles per 2d to communicate across thousands of mile .
Scientists do the same . Stations give out specific sounds on one continent and other stations pluck it up thousands of Admiralty mile away . Because the stations can communicate with each other in ways besides sound , the receiving station knows exactly when the emit one makes the phone , and calculates the time it takes the strait to make the voyage . The faster the sound , the higher temperature the ocean . There are variable , of course . Changes in salinity can also do chance in the speed of strait . But reprise signals between different stations can let scientists know the temperature of the sea by the sound it makes .
Check outThe Discovery of Sound in the Seasite for a sample of the sound that this acoustic thermometry uses . There ’s also an underwatergalleryof different undersea interference . Have n’t you always wanted to love what a narwhal sounds like ?
Top prototype : Tanaka Juuyoh
terra firma sciencePhysicsScience
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