9 Non-Obvious Fun Facts That Will Make You the Smartest Person in the Room

The Physics of a Whispering Gallery

In the architectural marvels known as whispering galleries, a whisper can travel clear across a room, audible to someone standing at a distant point. This phenomenon occurs in domed structures where sound waves travel along the curved surface, maintaining their intensity over long distances. The most famous example is St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where a whisper uttered at one end of the dome can be heard clearly at the other. Whispering galleries demonstrate the fascinating interplay between architecture and acoustics, illustrating how design can manipulate sound in ways that seem almost magical.