Ultrasound Technology And The Many Ways It's Being Used

The term Ultrasound is commonly associated with the medical field and pregnancies or testing that involves a look inside the human body. But ultrasound is not a process, it is, in fact, a sound level that can be used for many things in our modern world. And as the technology improves, the uses of ultrasound have increased in many interesting ways.

What is Ultrasound?

When you hear the word ultrasound, you probably think of the medical diagnostic tools used to look inside the body and examine something with little to no side effects to the patient. In fact, the term ultrasound refers to sound waves at an audio range far above what most people can hear. The audible limit for most people around 20 kHz or kilohertz and ultrasound is above that range. Aside from the audible range, there is little difference between ultrasound and sound waves we can hear every day.

Medical Uses

While we often hear about women getting ultrasounds when they are pregnant, there are many other medical uses as well. A doctor can get a look at the internal organ or reproductive organs without the risk of damage from radiation, They can look at blood flow through veins and arteries or find a blockage in a vessel with ultrasound technology, and now with 3d and 4d technology, they can examine the structure of an organ from the outside of the body with no pain or risk to the patient.

Industrial Uses

There are many uses of ultrasound in the industrial setting as well. One of the best tools for looking inside an item without destroying it is through the use of ultrasound. Nondestructive testing has come a long way, and if a manufacturer can look for flaws in the material or workmanship of a product without damaging it, they could conceivably look at every part of an assembly line, achieving 100 percent inspection and reducing the number of flawed or damaged products going out the door.

Ultrasound in Nature

There are several species that use techniques similar to ultrasound in our natural environment. Bats that use echolocation and dolphins that use a very similar locating method are essentially doing the same thing an ultrasound machine does. They send out sound waves, wait for them to bounce back, and determine what is in front of them. The ultrasound machine does the same thing but needs a transducer and computer to determine what the returning sounds waves are showing.

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