Whisper Dishes
Two concave eight foot diameter dishes face each other across a room. When you work with this exhibit you can whisper into the focal point of one dish, allowing someone at the focal point of the other dish to hear what you are saying, all without electricity! The concave shape of the plastic dishes aids in directing the sounds waves across the room and in collecting the sound waves traveling from the other side of the room.
Further Learning Links
The following links lead to further learning resources about the scientific principles demonstrated in this exhibit. If you know of a website that would be useful to include, please let us know.
Focusing and Transmitting Sound
Parabolic Dishes and The Ellipse Game
How Stuff Works—Speakers
Core Curriculum Connections
The Whisper Dishes relate to the following Utah State Core Curriculum Standards and Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)
- 6th Grade: Science 6.3a
- 8th Grade: Science 4.1c, 4.4e
- 9th Grade: Earth Systems 1.1e
