918 Occam’s Razor (1/2)

After releasing the air from the assault boat, Zhang Zian folded it and loaded it into his trunk. He then drove his car back to the pet shop, satisfied. He was not in a hurry to return the underwater sound device to Professor Wei Kang because he did not know if he had managed to fully record every sound. Although he did not understand the language of the whales, but he knew that language was a complicated thing; it was impossible to learn a language from just listening to a few fragmented words.

If Sihwa expressed that the length of the sound recorded was not enough, then he would have to repeat what he did that day again until she was satisfied.

”Master, you're back. Godzilla… No, did you manage to record the sounds you wanted to record?” Wang Qian asked, running over to carry the battery.

”En, I've probably managed to record it. After I've finished compiling it I'll make a copy, and you can go and pass it to Li Kun. Tell him to play it as background music in the aquarium,” Zhang Zian instructed, carrying the whole equipment set for the underwater sound device. He walked towards the second floor.

Wang Qian agreed, then returned to the shop to charge the battery.

Pi had just finished writing a chapter, and at that time, was stretching his limbs and strolling back and forth in the living room to exercise its body.

”Pi, let me use the computer. I'll be done in a short while.”

”Zhi zhi.”

Zhang Zian took out the memory card from the equipment and downloaded the matching sound analysis software, then imported the original audio file from the memory card.

The sound was converted into a waveform and displayed on the monitor, but it was very complicated. There was no continuity, just like a thousand K-line charts of stock being displayed at the same time, causing people to see things in a blur.

He studied for a while about how to use the software, then adjusted the strainer, removing all the high frequency sounds. After that, the display instantly became a lot less messy, but there was still more than 100 curves left over.

After that, he then dragged the time axis and found the ending of the audio file.

He had roughly remembered when the giant whale's sound appeared, and through comparing the time it appeared and when it ended, he went through a process of elimination and eliminated more than 90 percent of the random noises. He was then left with very few curves.

As he had not much experience, the rest of the curves could not be eliminated simply through using the sound figure, so he decided to use a dumb method: He selected the curves, then played the sounds.

Thump…

Click…

Ka…

Ding…

Si…

Different kinds of sounds successively rang from the computer's weak speakers. Some sounds were beyond the human's ears' capabilities, and could only be heard after he used the software to strengthen the sound.

Talking about it was strange. He had been very focused when he was out at sea, but when he heard the sounds from the computer, he found that they were very foreign, as if he had never heard them before.

”Zhi zhi.” Pi scratched its ears and head, as if its whole body was itchy. Obviously, listening to the overly strange sounds made it uncomfortable, and in the end, it simply covered its ears and jumped into the rattan chair. It covered its head with a pillow.

Wu— The familiar sound rang out.

Zhang Zian's heartbeat suddenly sped up.

He could not be wrong! The sound he had heard on the boat was the sound he was hearing now! Like the ringing of a train whistle, the sound periodically increased in loudness and then weakened. Occasionally, there were some sounds like that of the banging that occurred when the wheels of the train met the railway track.

He had found it through much difficulty. He held down the left mouse, not daring to loosen his hold. He was scared that when he loosened his hold, the curve would be buried under the other curves. He dragged it to create another window of its own.

In the new window, the curve shape was like the mountain peaks that would periodically rise and fall. One side was steep, while the other side was gentle. The mountain had several peaks, which was where the whistle was the sharpest, and the peaks mostly corresponded to the banging sounds.

For the axes of the curve, the x-axis represented time, and the y-axis represented the sound frequency.