How do cicadas make so much noise? – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.hey it's Esther growing up I would hear this chirping sound outside maybe you've heard it too I knew it was made by insects like crickets but I never thought much about it then one spring grown-ups started making a big deal about something called a cicada there were going to be lots of cicas that summer and sure enough I I heard them they made a sound so loud it filled my entire neighborhood but the strange thing is I never saw the cicas I was so curious about them and someone named Elia is too let's give Elia a call now hi there hey Elia I have a question for you how's a k make so much noise that's a great question once I finally found out that cicas look like this I wanted to know the same thing how does this small insect make such a huge noise I mean people can just open their mouths and let sound out we can also make sound by snapping our fingers or clapping our hands or stomping our feet but insects bodies are very different from ours they have Parts like an Tenny six legs and sometimes Wings some insects have mouth Parts shaped like Pinchers or curled up tubes if we can use our bodies to shout and snap and clap what do insects do to make sound to figure this out let's listen and watch as two insects make sound first here's a grasshopper and second here's a cricket now I'll play them both at the same time without sound I'm curious what you notice how do you think these insects make noise now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss okay ready I'm not sure how you answered but maybe you noticed that these insects are moving parts of their bodies like this grasshopper's legs they start moving up and down really fast the cricket's legs don't seem to move much but its wings move really fast and when the Wings Stop Moving the sound stops too Grasshoppers and crickets move body parts back and forth to make sound but they use different body parts legs and wings and take a close look here at the inside of this grasshopper's leg leg it's got this bumpy Ridge there's something similar on this Cricket's Wing let's look closely here up close you can see it's actually lots of tiny ridges Grasshoppers and crickets rub these bumpy ridges back and forth against other body parts to make noise it's kind of like the ridges on this instrument when you rub a stick across them it makes a noise too only these insects move their body parts even faster now see what you notice about this cicada as it makes noise I don't see its legs moving and its wings don't move much either but do you notice how its body is moving when this person gently lifts the cicada's wing being careful not to hurt it you can get a better look watch this part here see how it shakes back and forth this is a special body part called a timble there's a timble under the other Wing too the timble is making sound as it moves but unlike the grasshopper's legs or the cricket's Wings the cicada isn't rubbing anything against it instead a timble Works more like a metal cap from a container when you push down on the flexible Center and let it spring back it makes clicking sounds when you saw the cicada's body moving it was flexing muscles that move its timbles back and forth that makes part of the timbles bend and spring back like the metal cap imagine for a moment that you have timbles on the sides of your belly see how fast you can flex your belly muscles to make your timbl move kind of tiring right while a cicada can move its timbles back and forth super fast fast enough to make 300 to 400 Clicks in 1 second all those clicks blend together into one big buzzing noise cicas are amongst the loudest insects on Earth and we usually don't hear just one that sound on a warm summer afternoon is dozens and dozens of cicas they sink up the rhythm of their clip to make an even bigger sound it's like how the crowd in a stadium can clap and stomp together to make a thunderous beat or how the singers in a chorus can fill a room with music a group of cicas clicking in sync can make a sound that fills a forest or your neighborhood scientists even call a group of cicas a chorus so in summary cicas and some other insects use different body parts than we do to make sound grasshoppers use their legs and crickets use their wings and cicas use special body parts called timbles these insects move their body parts back and forth really fast to make sounds that's all for this week's question thanks Elia for asking it now for the next episode we reached into our question jar and picked out three questions sent into us that we're thinking about answering next when this video is done playing you'll get to vote on one you can choose from do all flowers smell good why are the Olympic games so popular or why does it get hot in the summer so submit your vote when the video is over we want to hear from all of you watching there are Mysteries all around us stay curious and see you next week