128 points

Except that the humpback whale will reproduce long before that marine biologist loses his virginity.

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58 points

Well yes, humpback whales reach sexual maturity by around 10 years of age (some much before then it seems). A marine biologist is still practically in it’s larval form at that point.

(Yes, yes, I know that wasn’t what you meant, but I couldn’t help myself)

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39 points

The marine biologist:

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4 points

I was scrolling comments to see if i am the only one who thought about him

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9 points

Hmmm, let’s see:

  • Can’t even spell “can” correctly. (dumb)
  • Bad attitude towards animals. (mean spirited)
  • Paid for premium. (desperate)

Yeah, I don’t see women lining up around the block for this catch of a human being.

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1 point
*
Deleted by creator
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3 points

It’s like Wyle E Coyote finally gets an ACME rocket that’s fast enough to catch the road runner, only to go zooming by the roadrunner on an upward trajectory headed for the moon.

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8 points

Unless it’s the 52Hz whale. I’d shed a tear for that lonely creature; not for that biologist though.

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18 points

*can

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13 points

He calls 'em like he sees 'em.

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11 points

He does sound like he hates whales.

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4 points

I bet he’d hate bears, if he were to switch fields.

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1 point

That’s why he’s a marine biologist. He’s looking for the chad white whale who dated the girl he was into.

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2 points

Whale biologist!

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4 points

No, apparently he *kalls them.

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15 points

How well sound propagates through water is highly dependent on the water temperature variations over depth. There can be conditions in which sounds can be trapped between two different horizontal “layers” and travel far greater distances than 80km.

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2 points

Wow, that’s cool. Completely makes sense but not something I’d thought about…

Would the temperature differences need to be very large for this effect to occur?

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1 point
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“The SOFAR channel (short for sound fixing and ranging channel) … is a horizontal layer of water in the ocean at which depth the speed of sound is at its minimum” …
“The SOFAR channel acts as a waveguide for sound, and low frequency sound waves within the channel may travel thousands of miles before dissipating.” … https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOFAR_channel

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2 points

Crazy stuff, thanks!

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2 points
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As sound travels through a water layer where the speed through which it travels varies with depth, the sound will tend to refract towards where it is the slowest.

A layer where temperature decreases as depth increases will refract sound downwards. A layer that has the inverse temperature properties will do the opposite. A layer that is isothermal (where the temperature remains constant as depth changes), will still tend to refract sound upwards because the increase in pressure also increases velocity, although not as strongly as temperature does, which is why temperature differences can easily overcome this effect where the water is not isothermal.

If you have a layer that refracts sound downwards on top of a layer that refracts sound upwards, you just created a sound channel, which acts as a wave guide in which sound will remain trapped and travel far longer distances horizontally before dissipating.

Ultimately you can’t really put a number on the required temperature differences because there are many other factors to take into account like how steeply the speed of sound changes, how tall the layer(s) are, what is the frequency of the sound, or how much of it you want to remain “trapped” in the sound channel.

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2 points

Holy crap that’s bonkers! Thanks, you’ve blown my mind

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1 point

Outstanding meme

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