ECHO

Introduction
Ephraim What is echo?
Iman Echo are the reflection of sound
waves. Sound travel relatively slowly,
so there is a time delay between your
shout and the echo. Sound travels 330
to 340 m/s in air, it travels
1500m/s in water
 Using Echo
• They can be reflected off objects.
• The time it takes for the echo to come back to us can tell
us how far away the object is!

Give example!
1. Sonar
2. Animal Echolocation
3. USG (using sound not xray)
 Sonar

In the past many ships used to be shipwrecked because they

did not know whether there were rocks underneath the
water.
Now ships are fitted with sonar (sound navigation and
ranging). Sonar can tells them what is underneath the ship.
How Sonar work?
• The ship has an underwater loudspeaker (a transmitter) that
produces pulses of ultrasound.
• The ultrasound wave are more focused than beam of audible
wave, and they will not be confused with sounds made by people,
animals or other boats.
• The ultrasound travel through the water and reflect off object
such as rocks or the sea bed.
• The echoes returning to the ship are detected by underwater
microphone (the receiver).
• The sonar device uses the time of the echo being received to
work out the depth of the water.
 Animal echolocation
Animal such as whales and dolphins use echolocation more
than they use sight. This enable to find something to eat or
find their family members even if it is dark or the water is
not very clear.
Sound travel much faster in water than in air, so they can
send and receive sound messages over very long distance.
The dolphin makes a series of clicking sounds which reflect
off a solid object as a fish. The dolphin detect the echoes
and works out how far away the fish using the time it took
detect the echo
Other echolocation: bat
USG
 USG
1. The ultrasound transducer
emits sound waves.
Ultrasound
transducer
2. Sound waves bounce off the
Sound
waves baby like an echo.

3. The echo is then detected

again by the transducer

4. The transducer sends the

information to a computer
which makes it into a picture.
 Reducing echoes
Echoes can be a nuisance inside large room such as concert
halls and the theatres.
The sound reflects of all the surfaces and echoes can last for
several seconds, muddying the sound. This is called
reverberation.
The walls inside the theatre designed to absorb a lot of the
echoes.
Theatre walls and ceilings are covered with soft, sound-
absorbing materials.
 What do you know about echoes? Complete
the following:
reflection of sound. You can use the
An echo is a ________
time
__________ between making a sound and hearing the
distance
echo from a surface to calculate the __________ that
surface is away from you.

Time Reflection Distance

 Calculate distance
• Imagine standing across from a
building.
• You clap and hear the echo 1 170 m there +
second later. 170 m back =
340 m
• The speed of sound in air is 340
m/s so it travels 340 m in 1
second. 170 m

• So, the distance to the wall is

170 m as the sound had to travel
there and back
• Imagine standing across
from a building. 510 m there +
• This time you fire a pistol 510 m back =
and hear the echo 3 1020 m
seconds later.
• The speed of sound in air is 510 m
340 m/s so it travels 1020
m in 3 seconds.
• What is the distance to the
building?
 Method for using echoes to calculate distances

Step 1

Total distance Speed of Time taken to

travelled by = sound (in x hear echo (in
sound m/s) seconds)

Step 2

Distance to Total distance

object = travelled by sound ÷ 2
 Using Echoes - Questions

1. You click your fingers in a large hall and hear the echo 0.5 seconds later off the back
wall. How far is the back wall?
Total distance sound travelled: 340 m/s x 0.5 s = 170 m
So, distance to back wall = 170 m / 2 = 85 m

2. A boat sends a sound to the bottom of the ocean and it takes 2 seconds to return to
the boat. How deep in the ocean?

Total distance sound travelled: 1500 m/s x 2 s = 3000 m

So, distance to ocean floor= 3000 m / 2 = 1500 m
Speed of sound in air = 340 m/s
Speed of sound in water = 1500 m/s
QUESTION
1. Describe how fisherman can use sonar to find a shoal of fish!
2. Sound travel at 1500 m/s in water. How deep is an ocean if the echo from
a transmitter takes 4 s to reach the receiver?
3. A dolphin makes a clicking sound and detect the echo from a fish that is
250 m away. How long was it before it heard the echo? If the sound
travel at 1500 m/s in water
4. Why can dolphin find food at greater distances than bats?
5. A woman is having an ultrasound scan. Ultrasound travels at 1500 m/s
inside the body. The ultrasound transmitter send out a pulse of
ultrasound and its reflected from surface 7.5 cm away. How long befor
the echo received?