My Explanation for Echolocation

Echolocation is the transmission of sound used by bats, dolphins, flying squirrels, porpoises and whales to locate objects.  Whales, among other sea animals, use echolocation in order to see through the sometimes murky depths of the deep ocean.  whales send out high-pitched sounds which are bounced off an object and returned to the whale.

Whales are incredibly intelligent.  Other than the distance, they can also determine such things as texture, shape and size of the object.  This helps them in deciding on where prey and different objects around the ocean may be.

It is believed that dolphin echolocation was the result of evolution over time. This process allows for them to send out sound waves that are like a click. When those sounds hit an object it bounces back vibrations to the dolphins. This allows them to identify where objects are located. It also gives them information about the location of the object and some indication of the shape and size of it.

Water is an excellent sound transmitter.  Sound travels almost five times as fast through water than it does through air.  So if we know that an object is approximately 4500 m away and sound travels at approximately 1500 m/s, then it takes approximately 3 seconds for the echo to reach the object and three seconds to come back.

A great deal of what we know about bat echolocation is credited to Lazzaro Spallanzani. He conducted tests in the 1970’s that involved putting them in darkness. Even so they were able to move around and to find food. However, when he plugged their ears, they had a hard time moving around and finding their food sources. This proved that the bats were relying on their ears and not their eyes for movement.

Echolocation is very very important to animals such as bats, dolphins, porpoises , whales, flying squirrels and rats. Most bats and most whales. Also, two bird groups use the echolocation to navigate through caves. Echolocation is used by animals who usually can't see very well, or they live in an environment that is hard to see.

Echolocation is the transmission of sound used by bats, dolphins, flying squirrels, porpoises and whales to locate objects. If there was no such thing as echolocation then animals like bats, dolphins, flying squirrels, porpoises and whales will not be able to get their prey as fast and when they try they might bump into something. They might get stuck in a net. in the end echolocation is super important to bats, dolphins, flying squirrels, porpoises and whales.