Underwater acoustics

Underwater acoustics is like playing with sound in water. Imagine you’re swimming in a pool and someone is talking to you underwater. You can hear them but their voice sounds funny. That’s because sound waves travel differently in water than in air.

Underwater, you can hear things from far away, like boats or whales talking to each other. Scientists use special devices called hydrophones to listen to these sounds. Hydrophones are like super ears that hear everything happening in the ocean.

Underwater acoustics is useful for many things, like finding things in the ocean, measuring how deep the water is, and understanding how animals communicate with each other. It’s like a secret language that only underwater creatures can hear.

But, just like how loud music at a party can bother your neighbors, loud underwater sounds can hurt animals’ ears, especially whales and dolphins. So, we must use underwater acoustics carefully and make sure we don’t disturb the animals that live in the ocean.