Teaching demo
Why does the ocean sound so creepy?
A man strikes a small brass gong, then dips it into a tank. In fresh water the ring dies almost instantly. Add salt — about 3.5 percent, like the ocean — and the low frequencies linger. This page synthesizes that gong in your browser (no recorded samples) so you can hear and see the caricature: salt water lets lows travel farther.
Inspired by the YouTube Short by @Nyvraexplains, crediting Daniel Thieme. Simplified physics, labeled as a teaching demo — not a hydrophone lab model.
Hydrophone tank · 0.0% salt
Air — long decay, full spectrum
Click Strike to start the Web Audio engine.
Air
The brass disc rings with inharmonic partials and a long sustain. Energy across the spectrum fades slowly — especially the lows.
Fresh water
Submerged, the gong couples into a dense, highly damping medium. In this demo even the lows collapse within a fraction of a second — matching the “ring dies instantly” tank test.
Salt water / ocean
Highs are still swallowed, but low frequencies persist as a darker drone. Real oceans carry rumble and whale song for vast distances; this slider is a cartoon of that idea.