The Little Mermaid scientifically proven

[tazber]

Posted: 2/13/08 at 10:15am

For the anal retentive there are spoilers below:

The Little Mermaid

In the Disney version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, Ariel (the mermaid) asks a witch to make her human because she has fallen in love with a human prince. The witch bargains with Ariel and takes her voice in exchange for performing the transformation. For a considerable part of the story Ariel cannot speak, which is a problem because the prince can only recognize her by her incredibly beautiful singing voice. Later, she recovers her voice and wins the love of the prince (sorry to spoil the ending).

In the story, Ariel loses her voice because of a curse. However, a less skilled sorceress could use a different method to silence a singing mermaid. Scientists have figured out a way to bend sound waves around an object and, can even prevent the escape of all sounds created inside a given area (important for keeping a transformed, singing mermaid from being heard).

Recently, Steve Cummer, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University announced that it is theoretically possible to create such a sound shield. Building on research demonstrating how light waves can be bent around an object to make it appear invisible, Cummer and his collaborators used mathematical analysis to show how to do the same thing with sound. They established that it is possible to create a material that bends sound waves around walls, pillars, or any enclosed area, where the sound waves emerge as if nothing had been in their way. It would be like someone in the bedroom being able to hear what someone in the living room said, but as if there were no wall between them.

A side effect of this discovery is that sound waves generated inside the enclosed area would never escape. If the witch had been extremely clever, she could have built this material, and there would have been no need for a curse. Or maybe she did, and a transparent sound shield based on these principles was what enveloped Ariel until her love for the Prince melted it away, finally releasing her melodious voice for the Prince to hear.

Link

Updated On: 2/14/08 at 10:15 AM

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/13/08 at 10:23am

Some people (not you taz), have too much time on their hands.

[jwonjy119]

Posted: 2/13/08 at 11:23am

Way to go for them to ruin the DISNEY MAGIC.

;D

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/13/08 at 11:50am

Do you mean scientifically? I think you have a typo in your thread title.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 2:59am

Tazber, at least learn how to link correctly!

[scott68]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 3:33am

Ariel gets the prince in the end? Whoa... my mind is BLOWN.

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 9:55am

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing!

[italianpride888]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 2:34pm

well.. when they cast Bill Nye the Science Guy as Ursula, this method will be used. I promise you that.

[*brina-doll*]

Posted: 2/14/08 at 4:01pm

Now that would be amazing if they cast him