Mr. Garrett keeps talking to us about the use of trigonometry in how whales speak. You might be like, "What? Whales speak?", but whales have been known to have high levels of communication since around 1971 (Khamsi, 2006). When studying how a whale "clan" was formed, scientists discovered that they were formed between whales who had a similar dialect(Lee, 2016). During a class last semester, Mr. Garrett gave a lecture on the use of trigonometry in sound. During this lecture he described how whales have different dialects, and how sperm whales are thought to stun their prey using sound. This method has also been used by scientists. Peter Nelson (my dad) told me that sound was a common tool when getting rid of cell membranes.
Lee, Jane, National Geographic PUBLISHED September 8, 2015. "Sperm Whales' Language Reveals Hints of Culture." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
Khamsi, Roxanne. "Whale Song Reveals Sophisticated Language Skills." New Scientist. N.p., 2006.
Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
Its interesting to think that in the search for communication with non-humans. People who know sound will be the most important, trigonometry in really one of the most amazing branches of mathematics and is so crucial to everything that modern science has achieved. Hopefully someday we might be able to sing with whales and actually communicate, but also that would be really weird. In all, I think that this is a great example of how math and the arts can be mixed.
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