What Does Ultrasound Gel Do?
You may have had an ultrasound before, and wondered what that gel does. Well, that weird alien goop has a purpose, and it has to do with being like our weird ...
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You might be in hundreds of photos in your life, at birthday parties, graduations, or just snapping a selfie with friends. But the very first photo of you was probably taken while you were still inside your mom – thanks to the power of ultrasound. Doctors can use an ultrasound transducer to make ultrasound waves that travel through your body, and reflect off different squishy bits, like organs, or a fetus. Then, the transducer uses the reflected waves to create an image. That cold, sticky gel gets smeared on your body to help these waves make it to those inner tissues. But how exactly does it work? Well, ultrasound waves are just another type of sound wave. And sound waves travel by vibrating particles back and forth, like the ones that make up air. The higher the frequency of a soun...
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You might be in hundreds of photos in your life, at birthday parties, graduations, or just snapping a selfie with friends. But the very first photo of you was probably taken while you were still inside your mom – thanks to the power of ultrasound. Doctors can use an ultrasound transducer to make ultrasound waves that travel through your body, and reflect off different squishy bits, like organs, or a fetus. Then, the transducer uses the reflected waves to create an image. That cold, sticky gel gets smeared on your body to help these waves make it to those inner tissues. But how exactly does it work? Well, ultrasound waves are just another type of sound wave. And sound waves travel by vibrating particles back and forth, like the ones that make up air. The higher the frequency of a soun...
