The more scientists learn about "simple" things, the less simple they seem. Water, for instance, was long considered a simple mass of independent molecules jostling one another aimlessly, like marbles in a bag. Then someone noticed that when sound waves pass through water, they lose more energy than they theoretically should. A possible explanation: water molecules may be arranged in groups like small, loose crystals. If there are such "crystals," a sound wave would distort them, thus expending some of its energy.
Last week Harvard Physics Professor Gerald J. Holton told how he found...
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