How cool would it be to own your own submarine? Of course, submarines are very expensive. They’re also very large. You’d need a lot of water to be able to have fun with it. The average bathtub just wouldn’t do.If you had a submarine, where would you go? Searching for sharks? Exploring the depths of the Mariana Trench or the mysterious Bermuda Triangle? The depths of the sea contain many unexplored frontiers, so your adventures could be never-ending!
Every once in a while, you’d probably want to come up to the surface to see what’s going on above water. But how would you do that in a submarine? It’s not like submarines have sunroofs you could open to see what’s happening up above.
How does a submarine see above water?
Submarines feature a special device called a periscope that allows people inside the submarine to see what’s going on above water. The word “periscope” comes from the Greek words peri and scopus, which mean “around” and “look.”
Periscopes can be used in many ways
Periscopes were used in World War I to see beyond the tops of trenches. They’re also used frequently in armored vehicles, such as tanks, to see outside when all the vehicle‘s openings are shut tight.Periscopes are similar to telescopes in how they’re built and how they work. The main part of a periscope is a long tube that has a mirror at each end. The mirrors are attached so that they are parallel to each other at a 45-degree angle.
