Saturday, March 12, 2016

Can we see sound?

 
The concept of ‘seeing sound’ might seem preposterous, but when you consider that sound is just compressed air travelling in waves, the idea becomes a bit more logical. The real trick is capturing air flow in a way that makes it perceptible to the human eye. Through some clever tricks, scientists are able to do just that using a technique called Schlieren flow visualization, which is used to study everything from heat and sound to aerodynamics and the spread of disease.

Watch & Learn:
https://aeon.co/videos/is-it-possible-to-see-sound-yes-but-it-takes-some-crafty-photographic-wizardry

What is schlieren photography?
Schlieren photography is similar to the shadowgraph technique and relies on the the fact that light rays are bent whenever they encounter changes in density of a fluid. Schlieren systems are used to visualize the flow away from the surface of an object.


NASA explains:
https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/tunvschlrn.html

No comments:

Post a Comment