Mermaids are mythical human, fish-like creatures that can swim in the ocean with a dolphin/fishlike tail but with a human torso, arms, and head. They are famous for being in the disney movie, The Little Mermaid. They aren’t real but how would they sound if they were real underwater?
To answer this question we must look into how we hear sounds underwater in the first place. We hear sounds from vibrations and sound waves. We receive sound through our ears. However, when we are underwater, we don’t hear through our ears because the water plugs it. So sounds reach us via our skulls. Because water and bone have similar densities we receive the sound directly to our heads. However, we don’t use our skull to hear sound much because on land we use our ears more often. That is why underwater sounds are different, less clear, and sounds like the sound is coming from everywhere. So if we heard mermaids, the sounds would feel like they’re coming from everywhere. It also wouldn’t sound so beautiful and smooth like in the movie.
For the mermaids themselves, they might have developed other features to hear very well underwater. “They [marine mammals] also have ear bones and eardrums, though not always functional. And they have evolved some adaptations to help them hear under the sea.
The lower jaw of dolphins and some whales contains fat that directs sound to the bony middle ear. This fat has a “special chemical composition that makes it really suitable for transmitting acoustic waves,” (ScienceNewsExplores). Other mammalian creatures also have ways of communicating underwater. Whales are commonly known for singing with each other.
Some fish also fart to communicate. They release air and other fish can understand what the fish is trying to say. Using all of this information it is probable that the mermaids would use a variety of these forms of communications, perhaps a hybrid of all of them. We will never know for sure though, as mermaids don’t exist.
To answer this question we must look into how we hear sounds underwater in the first place. We hear sounds from vibrations and sound waves. We receive sound through our ears. However, when we are underwater, we don’t hear through our ears because the water plugs it. So sounds reach us via our skulls. Because water and bone have similar densities we receive the sound directly to our heads. However, we don’t use our skull to hear sound much because on land we use our ears more often. That is why underwater sounds are different, less clear, and sounds like the sound is coming from everywhere. So if we heard mermaids, the sounds would feel like they’re coming from everywhere. It also wouldn’t sound so beautiful and smooth like in the movie.
For the mermaids themselves, they might have developed other features to hear very well underwater. “They [marine mammals] also have ear bones and eardrums, though not always functional. And they have evolved some adaptations to help them hear under the sea.
The lower jaw of dolphins and some whales contains fat that directs sound to the bony middle ear. This fat has a “special chemical composition that makes it really suitable for transmitting acoustic waves,” (ScienceNewsExplores). Other mammalian creatures also have ways of communicating underwater. Whales are commonly known for singing with each other.
Some fish also fart to communicate. They release air and other fish can understand what the fish is trying to say. Using all of this information it is probable that the mermaids would use a variety of these forms of communications, perhaps a hybrid of all of them. We will never know for sure though, as mermaids don’t exist.
