Question

Study the construction of the Gol Gumbaz at Vijayapura and discuss the reasons for the multiple echoes produced there.

Answer 1

Hint: We need to know the architectural design of the monument Gol Gumbaz to understand and analyse the multiple echoes produced in the construction. The reason for the creation of multiple echoes has to be described also.

Complete answer:
The Gol Gumbaz is a monument in Vijayapura in the state of Karnataka. It is a tomb dedicated to Muhammed Adil Shah, a former ruler of the Bijapur sultanate. The monument is a special architectural construction with a dome at its center.
The monument is characterised with the speciality of producing multiple echoes even up to seven times when listened in extreme silence. This is a scientifically explained phenomenon which causes the multiple echoes.
The hearing of sound produced once multiple times one after the other is the echoing of sound. This is due to the reflection of sound waves upon hitting an obstacle and reaching back to the listener. The time delay is the time taken for the wave to travel the distance to hit the hindrance and reflect back.
The dome of the Gol Gumbaz monument is a hemi-spherical structure that can reflect the sound waves hitting it from the inside. The sound waves are reflected many times more s compared to plane surfaces which creates the multiple echoing effect in the dome. This is the reason for hearing multiple echoes inside the monument. The number of echoes can be even more during silence as we can hear the feeble sound then.

Note:
The echoing of sound is usually used in many daily applications. We can use the time delay from the source to the listener to calculate the distance between two points which are separated by long and directly unmeasurable distances such as ocean depths.