The article Sound cloaks enter the third dimension by Andrew Grant, highlights the cloak technology developed to reduce noise pollution thus preventing submarines and war ships from being detected by the enemy. The article simplifies this important information to the public and the US Naval Department by breaking down the science behind the clock technology.
The project simplified in this article was funded by the United States of America Navy in a bid to identify means of establishing sound invisibility. According to Grant, and based on scientific reports from studies carried out in this field, human visibility is enabled by scattering of light waves that hit on various objects. This is the same concept employed by the navy where the scattered sound waves from vessels on or under water are detected (Grant, 2013). The scientists have identified that if these sound waves can be prevented from scattering of the vessel, then it would be possible to avoid sonar detection.
Considering that, scientists have been carrying out research to develop cloaks that would inhibit the scattering of these sound waves thus preventing vessel detection by the enemy. Most of their research has been unsuccessful. This article thus is written to inform the US Navy Department that there has been a break through after Jose Sanchez-Dehesa who is an electrical engineer and his colleagues pursued a different method of preventing detection (Grant, 2013). There technology seeks to design a sphere that would also scatter sound waves as those scattered by the vessel thus cancelling out the effect and enabling sound invisibility. This is particularly good news to the US Naval department to whom this information is directed to and who had funded the research.
Work cited
Grant, A. (2013). “Sound cloaks enter the third dimension.” Science News http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349255/description/Sound_cloaks_enter_the_third_dimension
