Crickets Are Nature’s Thermometers
- 10 years ago
If you’re ever wondering what the outside temperature is, all you have to do is listen to the chirping of a cricket.
If you’re ever wondering what the outside temperature is, all you have to do is listen to the chirping of a cricket.
Sure, there’s also the option of checking a phone’s weather app, but nature’s version has a much longer track record of success.
The tried and true method is called Dolbear’s Law and it’s been around since the late 1800s.
That’s when physicist Amos Emerson Dolbear first published his research on the topic under the title, ‘The Cricket as a Thermometer’.
In his paper he noted that the number of chirps made by crickets varied consistently with temperature fluctuations.
When it was warm the sounds were more frequent. Colder temps resulted in a marked decline in noisemaking.
Based on his observations, he devised a mathematic formula that can be used to determine the temperature based on how many chirps are heard over a given period of time.
Which crickets he’d observed wasn’t revealed, but over the years, many have retested his findings, and found them to be reliable.
Some of the insects naturally chirp more than others, but adjustments made for species difference doesn’t affect the overall dependability of the method.
For those who like the idea but don’t want to bother with the math, there’s a Dolbear’s Law calculator on the Internet.
If you’re ever wondering what the outside temperature is, all you have to do is listen to the chirping of a cricket.
Sure, there’s also the option of checking a phone’s weather app, but nature’s version has a much longer track record of success.
The tried and true method is called Dolbear’s Law and it’s been around since the late 1800s.
That’s when physicist Amos Emerson Dolbear first published his research on the topic under the title, ‘The Cricket as a Thermometer’.
In his paper he noted that the number of chirps made by crickets varied consistently with temperature fluctuations.
When it was warm the sounds were more frequent. Colder temps resulted in a marked decline in noisemaking.
Based on his observations, he devised a mathematic formula that can be used to determine the temperature based on how many chirps are heard over a given period of time.
Which crickets he’d observed wasn’t revealed, but over the years, many have retested his findings, and found them to be reliable.
Some of the insects naturally chirp more than others, but adjustments made for species difference doesn’t affect the overall dependability of the method.
For those who like the idea but don’t want to bother with the math, there’s a Dolbear’s Law calculator on the Internet.