TI-CBL interfacing
Crickets As Thermometers
Anyone who as ever been out in the country
on a summer evening is familiar with the chirp of a cricket. Cricket
chirps are used by males to attract females and once attracted,
they are used for courtship. Calling and courtship songs are different,
and each species chirps it own special songs. There is also an
interesting relationship between temperature and the frequency
of chirps.
In this investigation we are going to examine
a poikilotherm-the cricket (poikilotherms are sometimes described
as cold blooded-a somewhat misleading term). Poikiotherms
derive their heat from external sources, thus their body temperature
fluctuates with the temperature of their environment.
Crickets are insects, the most numerous class
of organisms. Like other poikilotherms, an insect's body temperature
fluctuates with the environment. The metabolism of an insect is
related to its temperature. The higher the temperature, the higher
the rate of metabolism. This can easily be observed by simply
cooling down the body of an insect....those difficult to catch
bugs can be simply picked up if their body temperature is sufficiently
lowered.
Today we are going to graphically analyze
the relationship between the frequency of cricket chirping and
temperature.
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