Trelane finished eating dinner with her parents. After she'd cleared the table and stocked up the washing machine, she returned to the table where they played a game of Scrabble - the adult version. (They'd once asked Trelane if she'd wanted to play with Scrabble Junior, and she'd scoffed at them.)
She came in third, as she usually did, but she wasn't interested in winning as much as improving her personal scoring record.
Then her parents went into the living room to watch a movie, and she went to her room and took up a library book, Sonar, by Karen Price Hossell.
She was writing her first article for the Girl Scientist Magazine, and was using the book Sonar as her source material.
The book had a glossary, and the first thing she did was turn on her laptop, pull up a word processing document, and type all the words into the computer. She was going to keep her own collection of oceanographic words, as well as share them with the readers - if any - of their website.
Her mom had warned her that it would take a while before the website "took off" and began to get readers, so they musn't be discouraged if they didn't get very many hits to start with.
Well, Trelane had thought, she'd be doing this work for her own purposes most of all, and it would only be gravy, as the saying went, if other people read their website, too.
So, let's start with the glossary, she said to herself, and began to type:
Sonar - A system that locates objects using echoes from sound waves it sends out. Sonar is an acronym of Sound Navigation and Ranging.
Active sonar - A sonar system that both receives and transmits signals, as opposed to passive sonar, which only receives signals.
Ultrasound - A high-frequency sound that cannot be heard by humans. Ultrasonic frequencies are used to make an image of the inside of the human body.
Sonographer - A person who is trained to use ultrasound.
Side scan sonar - A sonar device that sends beams of sound out sideways, using an instrument called a towfish.
Single beam echo sounder - A sonar device that uses one beam of sound sent straight under the ship or boat.
Sonobuoy - A floating object placed in the water to receive or send out sonar signals. It also transmits them by radio back to a station.
Sonogram - image of part of the body made using ultrasound.
Sounding - Finding out the depth of a body of water,
Acoustic communication system - A system that uses sound waves and beams to communicate
After typing in these words, Trelane decided to take a break.
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