ultrasound
(noun)
Sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing; approximately 20 kilohertz.
Examples of ultrasound in the following topics:
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Applications: Ultrasound, Sonar, and Medical Imaging
- Ultrasound is sound with a frequency higher than 20 kHz.
- The most common use of ultrasound, creating images, has industrial and medical applications.
- The use of ultrasound to create images is based on the reflection and transmission of a wave at a boundary.
- When an ultrasound wave travels inside an object that is made up of different materials (such as the human body), each time it encounters a boundary (e.g., between bone and muscle, or muscle and fat), part of the wave is reflected and part of it is transmitted.
- Ultrasound waves are sent out then reflected off the objects around the animal.
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Energy, Intensity, Frequency, and Amplitude
- For example, the longer deep-heat ultrasound is applied, the more energy it transfers.
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Characteristics of Sound
- Ultrasound uses sound waves with high frequencies to see things normally hard to detect, like tumors.
- Animals, like bats and dolphins, use ultrasound (echolocation) to navigate and locate things.
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Frequency of Sound Waves
- They can use this super hearing, or Ultrasound for locate objects and prey.
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Turbulence Explained
- Another method of detecting this type of turbulence is ultrasound, used as a medical indicator in a process analogous to Doppler-shift radar (used to detect storms).
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Radio Waves
- The ability of radio waves to penetrate salt water is related to their wavelength (much like ultrasound penetrating tissue)—the longer the wavelength, the farther they penetrate.