Whispering gallery

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008)

A whispering gallery is a gallery beneath a dome, vault, or enclosed in a circular or elliptical area in which whispers can be heard clearly in other parts of the building.

A whispering gallery is usually constructed in the form of an ellipsoid, with an accessible point at each focus. When a visitor stands at one focus and whispers, the line of sound emanating from this focus reflects directly to the dish/focus at the other end of the room, and to the other person. Circular whispering galleries may provide "communication" from any part on the circumference to the diametrically-opposite point on the circumference.

Examples

• The Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, Karnataka State, India.
• Gates Circle along Delaware Ave. Buffalo, N.Y. Exterior circular concrete benches in sectors.
• Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey.
• The Echo Wall in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China.
• The Fazer cafeteria in Helsinki.
• The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
• Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol is a famous example of a whispering gallery.
• St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.
• Basilica of St. John Lateran, in Rome, Italy.
• Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence Cathedral, in Florence, Italy.
• St Paul's Cathedral in London. ^[1]
• Cathedral of Brasília in Brazil.
• Leaning Tower of Nevyansk in Sverdlovsk oblast.
• Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal.
• The Mapparium in the Christian Science complex in Boston allows visitors to enter the interior of reflecting surface forming nearly complete sphere, with very striking effects.
• Grand Central Station in New York City the gallery in front of the Oyster Bar restaurant.
• The rotundas of the Texas State Capitol and the Missouri State Capitol.
• Martello towers
• The library of Dollar Academy in Scotland
• Ali Qapu Palace in Esfahān, Iran
• Centennial fountain in front of Green Library at Stanford University in California

Whispering galleries also occur naturally in the ocean. Instead of the reflecting surface it is the sound rays that are curved and the reflecting 'wall' (the sea surface) is flat.^[2] The same phenomenon occurs for radio waves propagating in the atmosphere.^[3]

Many research institutions now do research on optical whispering galleries, which range in size from several micrometers to millimeters in diameter .

See also

• St Paul's Cathedral
• Underwater acoustics
• Sofar channel

References

1. ^ A. E. Bate, Note on the whispering gallery of St Paul's Cathedral, London. Proceedings of the Physical Society, 50:293–297, 1938.
2. ^ D. E. Weston, Guided acoustic waves in the ocean. Reports on Progress in Physics, 42:347–387, 1979.
3. ^ K. G. Budden & H. G. Martin, The Ionosphere as a Whispering Gallery. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 265(No. 1323):554–569, 1962.

External links

• Whispering Gallery Modes information from the University of Bristol, UK.
• Whispering Gallery at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois USA.

This article related to a type of room in a building is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This architecture-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e