Modern Uses
Parabolic acoustic mirrors called "whisper dishes" are used as participatory exhibits in science museums to demonstrate focusing of sound. Examples are located at Ontario Science Centre, San Francisco's Exploratorium, and Parkes Observatory in Australia. A pair of dishes, typically 6 to 10 feet in diameter, are installed facing each other, separated by hundreds of feet. A person standing at the focus of one can hear another person speaking in a whisper at the focus of the other, despite the wide separation between them.
Parabolic microphones depend on a parabolic dish to reflect sound coming from a specific direction into the microphone placed at the focus. Because of their small, portable size, they can easily be used in the same manner as acoustic mirrors for detection and direction finding of distant noise sources.
Read more about this topic: Acoustic Mirror
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