Whispering gallery

From ArticleWorld

A whispering gallery is a specially designed building or elliptical area, with the very special quality of being able to carry a whisper to other parts of the room or building. When a person whispers in a whispering gallery, the whisper can be heard in other areas of the building quite clearly. The building is usually either enclosed, in an elliptical or a circular shape. When a visitor to this type of gallery stands at a focus point and whispers, the whisper is carried distinctly to a listener at another point in the room. Circular whispering galleries work by communicating from on part of the outside circumference of the circle to the opposite part of the circumference of the room. There are many whispering galleries throughout the world. These galleries are of scientific interest to many people.

Whispering galleries in the world

There are many types of whispering galleries in many different places in the world. The United States Capitol Statuary Hall is one example of a whispering gallery. Another example is London's St Paul's Cathedral. Two more examples of whispering galleries are Cincinnati Museum Center, and Boston's Mapparium, which is in the Christian Science area in Boston, The Mapparium allows visitors to enter nearly complete sphere the interior of the building, with astounding results.

Caltech in the US has been researching optical whispering galleries. These galleries are relatively small, and must be filtered to be visible. Some other whispering galleries are at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Chicago, USA. Scientists are studying whispering galleries, and creating whispering galleries for study in industrial schools.