Whispering Dishes

Alvaston Park in Derby has featured regularly in my journal since I started blipping in April. I have often considered these concrete dishes as a subject, but was not quite sure what they were for.

When I passed them today I noticed that signs have appeared to explain them. They are part of the Alvaston Park Science Garden which officially opened in January.

They are called Whispering Dishes, the idea being that if you whisper into one of the dishes, someone listening at the other dish will be able to hear you. It works in the same way as parabolic mirrors in telescopes, except that they focus sound instead of light. I was there on my own so couldn't put this to the test.

You can also see a model of the Earth on the right of the picture. This belongs to another feature of the science garden. It's part of a scale model of the inner solar system where 1 metre in the park represents 1,000,000 km in the solar system. So far I have also located Mercury but have failed to find Venus or Mars. Perhaps some local youths have carried them away.