By: Alan Guo

Even though mermaids are fictional creatures, how would they sound if you were underwater with them? Let’s find out!

If you were underwater with a mermaid, their songs would be muffled and unclear, plus you wouldn’t know where she is. Even if you were next to the mermaid, if you understood what she was saying, the tune would still sound weird. To see why, we have to know how we hear things on land. Sound is made when an object moves or vibrates–all the colliding particles that are sent out make the sound you hear. Some of the particles get in your ears and strike your eardrum (not the instrument drum) which shakes 3 bones. One of them rattles your fluid-filled cochlea. The cochlea turns the sound waves into electrical pulses that the brain can understand.

But, underwater, something different happens. Your ears are clogged with water. You need to rely on your skull rattling because the sound waves are hard to detect with water blocking it. That’s because bone and water have about the same density. When sound waves gently rattle the skull, “that is directly stimulating the inner ear — the cochlea itself,” Jaleen Singh, a researcher says. Unfortunately, it isn’t very effective for us. That’s why you hear sounds underwater muffled.

That’s pretty cool, right?