Normally, if you hear a sound, you have some idea of where the sound came from. But when a scuba diver hears a sound underwater, it is virtually impossible to tell where it came from.
1. Why?
2. Can you suggest some form of underwater hearing aid type device that would allow more accurate underwater sound localization?
As the sound in the underwater is five times faster than the speed in the air, the sound could reach our ears fast while we are in the water. As the water has direct contact with both our ears & the speed of the sound is fast, it means that the sound could reach both our ears at the same time. Or in other words, we hear the sounds in both our ears at the same time while we are in the underwater. This causes us to be unable to identify the direction of water while we are in the water.
It is inability to get any device to assist the hearing in the underwater to identify the direction of sound due to the fast speed of sound in underwater so much so the sound comes directly to both our ears at the same time and causes us to be unable to identfy the direction of sounds.
This is different while we are on the land. This is due to the speed of sound is slow. We could identify where the sound comes from in the air. The sound that comes near to which ear could hear the sound louder. For instance, the sound that comes near to the left ear could hear the sound louder than the right ear, vice versa. This causes us to be able to identify the direction of the sound while we are on the land.
Uncertainty
