Page 133 - Wonderful Creatures: Children! Have You Ever Thought ?

HARUN YAHYA (ADNAN OKTAR)

The cicada is a noisy insect. It produces
ticks, buzzes and whines by means of a system in its body. There is

a pair of membranous organs at the base of the insect's abdomen.
The cicada produces that well-known sound by vibrating these

drum-like membranes. When these membranes are pulled and
released by the muscles to which they are attached, a sound similar

to that of an empty tin is produced. The insect repeats this pull-
and-release process 500 times a second. Considering that you can

only close and reopen your eyes once in a second, you can readily
see how difficult it is to perform this task 500 times a second.

With the opening and closing of the extended part that exists on

the lower part of the insect's thorax, the sound level may be
increased or decreased. The human ear cannot perceive

these openings and closings, which occur in a tenth of a
second, so we do not notice that the sound is interrup-

ted and we think that the buzzing song of the cicada is
continuous.

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