Acoustic release

Okay kiddo, have you ever played with a key and a lock before? Well, an acoustic release is kind of like that, but with really big things that scientists put under water.

The scientists use something called a "submarine", which is like a really cool boat that goes underwater. Sometimes, they want to put something really heavy under the water, like a big metal box. But they don't want it to stay there forever! They want to be able to get it back when they're done.

So, they attach something called an acoustic release to the metal box. This is like a special key that only works if you use your voice to unlock it. The scientists go back up to the surface and use a special machine that sends out sound waves, like a really loud whistle. The sound waves travel through the water and hit the acoustic release, like the key hitting the lock.

When the sound waves hit the acoustic release, it unlocks the metal box and it floats back up to the surface! Then, the scientists can pull it out of the water and see what they found inside.

So, an acoustic release is just like a magical key that unlocks things underwater using sound waves. Pretty cool, huh?