Kukulkan Temple , at the Chichen Itza archaelogical site in Mexico , is n’t just an impressive architectural accomplishment . It also apply physical science to make hoot calls . That ’s right , a stone temple has the ability to mimic the sounds a local bird . get ’s see the pyramids at Giza do that !
The calls are all good imitations of the quetzal bird , a spiritually important animal to the twelfth century Mayans . The disconnected sound of two hands clapping together gets transformed , in echoes , to the drawn - out fall tone of the bird . How the hell does that happen ? David Lubman , an acoustical consultant , took a look . It seems that the steps of the temple shape a Bragg diffraction grate . Diffraction is what chance when a wafture hit an object and circularise out .
For the most part , Bragg diffraction , and Bragg diffraction gratings , are studied by crystallographer . They send a wave of illumination into watch crystal , where the atom induce diffraction , and because the atoms are arranged in an orderly pattern , they form a grate . The crystallographer then study the pattern of the returning brightness level to get a mother wit of the construction of the molecules . Lubman is doing the reverse . Everyone knows the pattern of gradation on the side of the pyramid , and he ’s studying the sound wave that comes off of them .
Bragg scattering refers to a special design of wave scattering , which shows up acoustically in the auditory sensation coming from the pyramid . The two major feature of the scattered sound from the pyramid are the extension of the audio , and the fact that the sound is tonic . The replication hold out longer than the audio , bounced off many step , each at different distance from the original clapping audio . The sprinkle also lets lower frequence lag behind higher frequencies , intend that each of the “ snort calls ” starts out high and ends slightly scummy .
[ ViaOcasa.org ]
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