Courageous Joy

Echolocation: Scientific Speculation Sheet
5 November 2008

A glimpse of yesterday's science:

Materials Used:
2 pieces of card stock (8 x 11)
Tape
People

Procedure: (What you will do or what you did?)
Make megaphones.

One person talks through megaphone towards a wall of the house. The other person puts the small end of megaphone next to his ear, stands at a slight right angle to the wall and listens. Try it with and without the megaphone. (Notice Zander was the official noise maker.)

Try this with different objects (metal, wood, and brick).


Hypothesis: (What you think will happen and why?)
Zander – I’ll make a whale sound and you’ll hear it the same with or without the megaphone. “Nolan, do you want to get back to practicing to be as great as I am?"

Nolan – the sound will be louder with a megaphone. Think the echoes will be best with wood walls.

Arielle – The sound will be louder with the megaphone. I think the sound will be same no matter what object we use.

Results: (What actually happened?)
Sound is louder with the megaphone to our ears. Nolan thought the sound echoed better with the wood. Arielle thought it echoed better with the glass.

Conclusion: (What have you learned?)
Sound/echoes are heard better with megaphones. This is sort of how echolocation works for whales. We aren’t sure which material was supposed to reflect the sound better. Maybe it didn’t work well for us because Zander might have been making sounds at different volumes?

©2008 D.R.G.