sonar
Science & Engineering abbreviation · Physics
| Stands for | Sound navigation and ranging |
|---|---|
| Categories | Science & Engineering |
sonar stands for Sound navigation and ranging, a physics abbreviation.
Technique that uses sound waves underwater to detect objects and measure distances by timing echoes. Active sonar emits pings, passive sonar only listens; ships use it to chart the seabed and find fish, and navies to hunt submarines.
Example: The research vessel's multibeam sonar mapped the canyon floor at 4,000 meters depth.
Usage notes
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and submarine warfare in World War I spurred early development; the British called their system ASDIC. The acronym sonar was coined in the United States around 1942 to parallel radar. Medical ultrasound and bat echolocation work on the same principle.
Related abbreviations
More physics abbreviations
- RF – Radio frequency
- RHIC – Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
- SEM – Scanning electron microscope
- SHM – Simple harmonic motion
- SLAC – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- SM – Standard Model
- SQUID – Superconducting quantum interference device
- SR – Special relativity
- STM – Scanning tunneling microscope
- SUSY – Supersymmetry
- TEM – Transmission electron microscope
- TOE – Theory of everything