Vision/Light/Electricity

Heat Camera
A camera sensitive to infrared light picks up the heat emitted by visitors
and displays it as a color image on a large screen. Warmer objects emit
more infrared light than cooler ones, and different parts of the body are
often different temperatures, as revealed by the camera. More Info Mini-Vibe

Glow Discharge Tube
Glow Discharge demonstrates electrical effects in a low pressure gas. The visitor can vary the voltage and air pressure in a large cylindrical tube. If gas is leaked into the tube up to atmospheric (or almost atmospheric) pressure, all glowing ceases. As the vacuum pump reduces the pressure in the tube, it begins to glow pinkish-orange. As the pressure further decreases, the glow breaks up into light and dark spaces (Crooke’s dark spaces). After this phenomenon, the orange glow disappears completely leaving behind a blue violet glow which slowly gets dimmer until the tube is once again dark, except this time at a low pressure. A magnet hangs from the exhibit which allows the visitor to demonstrate that moving charges can be deflected by a magnetic field. Meters are provided which give an indication of the current flowing in the tube as well as the gas pressure. More Info Mini-Vibe

Visible Effects of the Invisible
Visible Effects of the Invisible graphically demonstrates resonant frequencies. A horizontal, clear, glass tube is partially filled with clear fluid. Sound generated by a speaker housed at one end of the tube causes the air in the tube to vibrate and geysers appear in the fluid where the motion of air is greatest. The geysers are generated at various sections of the tube by the adjusting the resonant frequency of the speaker, which causes pressure differentials. More Info Mini-Vibe

Sound

Oscylinder Scope
The Oscylinder Scope is an interactive artwork/exhibit which explores the nature of sound by directly translating the vibration pattern of musical strings into visible waves. You first start a large horizontal cylinder rolling by spinning it with your left hand. You use your other hand to strum the three musical strings. White lines engraved into the black cylinder scan the vibrating strings so that they appear as wavy lines. This startling phenomenon is at the heart of the Oscylinder Scope. The displayed wave form looks and acts like the trace on an electric oscilloscope. Each of the three musical strings displays a different wave pattern according to its frequency. You use a foot pedal to change the sound you hear, as well as the shape of the wave you see. More Info Mini-Vibe

Resonant Rings
Resonant Rings consists of circular steel bands of various diameters that are mounted on a plate which has been attached to a loudspeaker. By adjusting the frequency of the sound from an oscillator to the speaker, a graphic illustration of harmonic resonance can be seen in the rings as they vibrate at various frequencies and in different modes. The frequency of the speaker can be read directly on a digital counter. Exciter levers are provided for two of the rings so they may be struck lightly and their “natural frequency” observed, or their motions dampened. More Info Mini-Vibe

Speech Dissector
Slice up a recording of your voice and listen to the pieces. Record your voice and see the visual pattern (amplitude) on the screen. Alter the recording, or a part of it, by reversing the playback and changing the playback speed. A particularly interesting game is to record a word and listen to it played backwards. After memorizing the sound, record yourself saying the reversed word, and then play it backwards to recreate the original word. More Info Mini-Vibe

Motion

Bicycle Wheel Gyro
A visitor sits in a rotating chair and holds a rapidly spinning bicycle wheel by handles attached to the center hub. As the visitor tips the bicycle wheel to one side, the chair begins to rotate either right or left, depending on the direction the wheel is spinning. The bicycle wheel can also be hung from a freely rotating cable by an eyeloop in one of its handles. Instead of flopping down (which it will do if it isn’t spinning), it remains upright and “revolves” around the suspension cable. This exhibit shows the strange, non-intuitive attributes of spinning gyros. Any object that spins will hold to its axis, until a force is applied from outside. More Info Mini-Vibe

Turntable
The Turntable disk rotates like a giant compact disk. A supply of small metal disks, rings, and balls, 7-10 cm in diameter, is scattered around the stationary portion of the table top. Visitors try to keep the rings on their edge spinning on the disk. They discover that a ring spinning on edge may stay on the turntable for a while, orbiting the center. A disk laid flat will move in a straight line as soon as it slides off the turntable. Visitors, especially children, love the challenge of getting the disks and rings to stand on edge while moving around the Turntable. More Info Mini-Vibe

Spinning Patterns
Visitors can create unexpected patterns by drawing in the sand on the spinning sdisk. Shovels, brushes, hands, and fingers are the tools and sand is the medium for making circles, spirals, and heart-shaped figures on the variable speed-spinning platform. Three discs are provided to facilitate shared learning. More Info Mini-Vibe

Geology

Aeolian Landscape II
Aeolian Landscape is an exhibit in which a miniature wind-swept desert landscape is recreated by an electric fan and finely ground sand that mimics the process of wind picking up and depositing small particles. Geologists use the term "Aeolian" to refer to land formations that are caused by wind — sand dunes and snow are two common examples. The visitor can change the direction of the fan and notice how the shape of the miniature dunes influences the pattern of the wind, which in turn influences the shape of the dunes. More Info Mini-Vibe

Rift Zone II
Rift Zone uses air bubbling up through fine sand to suggest a small-scale geothermal landscape. By turning a knob, viewers can change the pressure of the air rising up through the sand and alter the shapes and patterns of the landscape. The aerators that activate the sand are arranged in a composition of three elements: a circle, a line and a dot, corresponding to the three kinds of rift zones that occur on Earth: solitary volcanoes, fracture zones such as the one spreading on the island of Hawaii, and the ring dike that forms in the crater of a volcano as the central plug cools and then a new eruption occurs around the perimeter in a circle. More Info Mini-Vibe

Seismograph
This seismograph is an earthquake detector that records up and down motions of the ground. Make a miniature earthquake by stomping your foot on the floor. Notice that the line jumps when you stomp your foot. This seismograph records the movements of the ground using a motion sensor underneath the exhibit. More Info Mini-Vibe

Weather

Tornado
The Tornado uses a large mist generator, fans and a carefully-shaped structure to produce a large tornado. This fourth-generation version is intentionally de-tuned so that random air currents can cause both the creation of a tornado and its temporary cessation. This latest Tornado is chaotic and unpredictable much of the time; it wanders off the source of the mist, slips out of the grasp of the shearing winds and presents a delightful and ever-changing image. More Info Mini-Vibe

Cloud Rings
Cloud Rings uses a mist generator and a large rubber membrane with a hole in the middle to launch a ring of vapor up to the ceiling. The ring is generated by the friction between the hole's edge and the vapor flowing through the hole, which forms a swirling pattern known as a vortex. More Info Mini-Vibe

Fluvial Storm
In Fluvial Storm, swirling water sculpts fine sand into an elaborate pattern of underwater dunes. A large globe filled with clear water and sand can be rotated, demonstrating sediment and fluid flows that normally occur in nature. Quickly stopping or starting the rotation stirs the sand up into a hurricane-like cloud. More Info Mini-Vibe