Question

Sperm whales, just like bats, use echolocation to find prey. A sperm whale’s vocal system creates a single sharp click, but the emitted sound consists of several equally spaced clicks of decreasing intensity. Researchers use the time interval between the clicks to estimate the size of the whale that created them. Explain how this might be done.

Hint: The head of a sperm whale is complex, with air pockets at either end.

Answer 1

Answer: The size of the whale can be estimated by using echo Sounder or Sonar

Explanation:The researchers and physicst uses the knowledge of reflection of sound in water or echo to solve a lot of puzzle under water , including calclulating the distance and size of objects like fish,sunk ship,etc

The sonar is able to receive the signals from the whales and the succesive echoes that follows when placed in a strategic position in the water in the path of the whale .

The sonar has a traducers which has both a transmitter and a receiver,so it receives pulses from the whale and transmit back same echo back to the whale and to the bottom of the sea.

Using the speed of sound underwater and time taken for succesive echoes of pulses ,it can calculate with the precision the location of the whale while the image of the whale is also capture by the traducers to determine the size.