Quote:
Originally Posted by Armistead
What I was asking Wernher is if he knew is a sub could pick up a return bong. I assume not because the sound wave would be bouncing away, make sense. We don't hear the return in the
game, nor do I think we would. If he has us on shortscale, he's obvious getting a Ping/Bong every few seconds, but we hear only the ping.
Just like in your sub, if you send a active ping, you wait for the return ping, more of a bong....Your ping has hit the target, so it makes a different sound. Using that info you can figure distane to the target. In game it's simple, just wait for the return bong and send to TDC and you get accurate range.
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Well, I am only drawing an inference based on extrapolated information but, that is exactly how I presume it works too. The initial ping sent out by the DD is omnidirectional, just by the nature of the medium (water) in which it is travelling. So, it's intensity should be constant in all directions. However, I think, once it hits the sub, it loses some of that initial intensity because now it is merely a (reflection) of the original sound (or ping). It may bounce again when some of that reflection returns and hits the hull of the DD but the intensity is diminished and therefore, I'm uncertain as to whether this can be detected by passive devices on the sub. My instinct would dictate that this is totally possible but remember, like Armistead says, the sound (reflection) is now moving away from the sub. To hear it bounce off the DD involves, yet again, another reflection and an even greater loss to the original sound density. You don't actually hear it the second it hits the DD. Just like lightning and thunder, you see the lightning first, you hear it afterwards. With the DD, you can't see it hit the hull, but you may (or may not) hear it's diminished capacity after it travels back to the sub.
Ugh, my head hurts now. Sniff, sniff: Do you smell something burning?
