TPO 42

In this set of materials, both the reading and the lecturer discuss a glass that is used in modern architecture, and it has dangerous for birds because they crash into the windows. Although the passage provides three theories for solving this problem, the speaker refutes all of the arguments described in this report.

To start off, the reading points out that using a one-way glass would solve this problem because birds cannot see the inside of the building, so they do not fly through it; also, the light comes into the building. The lecturer, in contrast, rejects this by mentioning that the one-way glasses work the same as the mirror. They reflect the sky and trees, so the birds see these pictures, and birds cannot distinguish reflected images from real ones; hence, they try to fly through them.

Going through the next approach, the reading passage states that people can draw some lines on the regular window's glasses, so the birds avoid trying to fly through them, and people can see out. Nevertheless, the professor believes that drawing some lines on the regular window's glass make holes that attract birds, and they try to fly through the hole. He also adds that if the designer makes the opening areas very small that birds could not fly through them, the light cannot get in from the windows, so the rooms become dark.

Finally, although the reading passage says that architecture would make a magnetic field around the building that helps the birds to avoid crash into the windows, the lecturer disagrees by mentioning that birds only use the Earth's magnetic field for travelling long distances, such as their seasonal migrations. However, for travelling in a short distance, such as travelling in the city they use their eye's sight and sunlight for finding their ways in short trips. So, this is not an influential solution.