Classroom Questions

Questions for “Stonehenge enhanced voices and music within the stone ring”

Stonehenge model

One-twelfth the size of original, this scale model helped scientists discover that Stonehenge would have amplified speech and improved musical sounds — but only for those inside the stone circle.

Acoustics Research Centre/Univ. of Salford

By Science News Explores

To accompany “Stonehenge enhanced voices and music within the stone ring”

SCIENCE

Before Reading:

1. Where is Stonehenge and what makes it famous?

2. What do you know about the purpose of the placement of this monument’s stones?

During Reading:

1.  The story says Stonehenge created a defined acoustic space. What does that mean?

2.  What is acoustics and what does an acoustical engineer do?

3.  How big was the Salford model used to study sounds at Stonehenge?

4.  When was Stonehenge created and how many stones made up this monument? How many of the stones are still there and intact?

5.  What does it mean to reverberate and how long would sounds reverberate at Stonehenge? Where were those reverberations and where would the source of those sounds have been? How do the researchers know that?

6.  According to the story, is it likely that the special acoustics at Stonehenge were created on purpose? Explain your answer.

After Reading:

1.  The scientists and engineers worked with a scale model of Stonehenge. Why did they not work with the real thing?

2. Researchers spent a lot of time and money researching the historical acoustics at Stonehenge. What are three things that the information they got out of this study could help them better understand?

3. If you could study the acoustic history of some famous ancient site, which site would you choose — and why?