Module E06
Parabolic Dishes
Module E06
Parabolic Dishes
1 - Whisper into the focus of one parabolic dish and ask a friend to listen at the other.
2 - If there are objects between the two dishes, do you hear better or worse? Why?
The human voice is a sound — that is, mechanical waves produced by the vibration of the vocal cords and carried through the air.
Parabolic mirrors reflect sound waves and focus them on a point called the focus. So, when you speak into the focus of one dish, the sound wave reflects off its surface and travels toward the other dish, which then concentrates it at its own focus.