Can you explain to me how to make a Whisper Dish: Construction Material Needed, Assembling Method, Dimensions.

Question

I really need help with the construction of a whisper dish, and would be really thankful and gracious, if I could find an answer from the geniuses out there, on how to build a whisper dish, along with construction materials needed, dimensions, and procedure; Or a helpful link; Or both, if possible.

Answer 1

Is this the sort of whisper dish you mean?
http://www.whitakercenter.org/science/PurchaseExhibits/whisperdishes.asp

If so, you want a parabolic reflector. Doing a web search on "parabolic sound reflector" returned lots of hits. Adding "exploratorium" to the search gave, among others:

The ones at the Exploratorium are made of fiberglass:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cmp/rental/ebtp/listening.html
(check the maintenance manual pdf file)

Here is a site with the computations needed to build a close approximation with flat pieces of material:
http://freespace.virgin.net/ljmayes.mal/var/parabola.htm\

These people took a disk of aluminum and beat it (hammered) into an approximate paraboloid shape for two of their dishes. For another they carved the shape out of styrofoam and then laid on fiberglass.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/3334/aim.html

http://www.newtrier.k12.il.us/academics/math/Connections/perception/ears.htm
(This school got theirs from old satellite dishes)

These people used umbrellas:
http://home.att.net/~rsl/APPR1.htm

These people don't say how they built theirs, but they have a list of magazine articles about it.
http://faraday.physics.uiowa.edu/acoust/3B35.39.htm

As for using the dish once you've made it, the Exploratorium pdf file is a winner.