title: [Acoustic characteristics of classrooms].
abstract: Quality and usefulness of school rooms for transmission of verbal information depends on the two basic parameters: form and quantity of the reverberation time, and profitable line measurements of school rooms from the acoustic point of view. An analysis of the above-mentioned parameters in 48 class rooms and two gymnasiums in schools, which were built in different periods, shows that the most important problem is connected with too long reverberation time and inappropriate acoustic proportions. In schools built in the 1970s, the length of reverberation time is mostly within a low frequency band, while in schools built contemporarily, the maximum length of disappearance time takes place in a quite wide band of 250-2000 Hz. This exceeds optimal values for that kind of rooms at least twice, and five times in the newly built school. A long reverberation time is connected with a low acoustic absorption of school rooms. Moreover, school rooms are characterised by inappropriate acoustic proportions. The classrooms, in their relation to the height, are too long and too wide. It is connected with deterioration of the transmission of verbal information. The data show that this transmission is unequal. Automatically, it leads to a speech disturbance and difficulties with understanding. There is the need for adaptation of school rooms through increase of an acoustic absorption.
authors.affiliation: Zakład Higieny Komunalnej Państwowy Zakład Higieny 00-791 Warszawa, ul. Chocimska 24.
authors.forename: Zbigniew
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Koszarny
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chyla
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005160:Facility Design and Construction / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009624:Noise, Transportation / Q000009:adverse effects; D011044:Poland; D012574:Schools / Q000592:standards*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000592:standards