Stations-ID: A007

Instructions:

On this bike, you too can become a tightrope artist.

• How heavy do you think the balancing arm is? How long is it?
• Where is the centre of gravity of a normal bike?
• Where is it on the tightrope bike?

Sadly, the tightrope bike is out of service in the winter. Since the steel rope contracts in low temperatures, it is necessary to slacken it come nightly frost. 

Stations-ID: A009

Instruction:

Stand on the platform and hold on to the handrail. Try to get yourself spinning with your feet. What happens if you pull yourself towards the centre?

Stations-ID: A001

Instructions:

• How many people have to stand on the shorter end of seesaw in order to lift the longer end?
• Are you able to balance the beam out?
• What do you think: How heavy is the beam?
• How many more people must stand on the short end in order to lift a person standing on the long end?

„Bürger in Bewegung“ (Moving Citizens) is the title of the planned monument to the reunification of Germany in Berlin. The
design by Stuttgart architects Milla and Partner and the Berlin-based artist Sasha Waltz comprises of a dish set up so that it
can be shifted to the side by a sufficient amount of people.

Stations-ID: D084

Instructions:

If you put the pieces together in the right order, the arch will be so stable that you can stand on it.

Which point of the arch can carry the most weight?

•  Can you construct the arch without using a template?
• Which part is only present once?
• After constructing the arch, try pushing the pieces inwards slowly. With which parts is this possible, with which impossible?
• What would happen if the two outer pieces were not connected to the baseplate.

“Then I went, turned inwards, through the arched gate, pondering back into the city. Why, I asked myself, does the vault not sink in, even though it does not have any support? It stands, I answered, because all the stones want to collapse at once – and I drew from this thought an indescribably refreshing comfort that stayed with me till the decisive moment always with hope, that I too would be able to stand, when everything makes me sink”
– Heinrich von Kleist in a letter to Wilhelmine von Zenge

Stations-ID: D091

English instructions:

Two people sit across from each other in the carousel, tossing a ball back and forth between them.

The rest of the group sets the carousel in motion. Try tossing the ball back and forth again.

• Where does the ball fly when the carousel is turning?

• Where does the ball fly if the carousel is turning in the opposite direction?

• Which flight path would an observer see, looking at the carousel from the top?

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Stations-ID: D081

Instructions:

Sit on the chair and turn.

Spread your arms or pull them in close to your body.

To amplify the effect, use the weights.

• What happens when you pull your arms in close while the chair is rotating?

• What happens when you spread them?

• Ask a partner to sit in the chair and hold the weights.

Set the chair in motion. Repeat the experiment, this time your partner spreads his arms.

This experiment dates back to the physics professor Robert Wichard Pohl (1884 – 1976). To transmit basic physical knowledge not only theoretically, but also practically, he developed various demonstration experiment, which are still an integral part of university practicals and lectures.

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Stations-ID: D065

Stations-ID: D032

Stations-ID: D007

Instructions:

Start and endpoint are the same for both spheres. One of the spheres rolls along an inclined plane, the other takes a longer way. 

• Which will reach it’s goal first?
• Which sphere arrives at the destination with a higher velocity?
• What would happen, if the spheres where of different sizes?

Marbles are not a new invention. The oldest finds are from Egypt and around 5.000 years old. The first glass marble on the other hand was made in Lauscha, Thuringia, Germany in the 19th century.

Stations-ID: D066

?? English instruction:

How can you build a bridge over a river, using only planks that are too short to
reach the other side? Without tools or any other help, a bridge, able to carry
weight, is to be constructed.
• Build a bridge of six planks.
• Expand this bridge by four planks.
• How big can your bridge become?
• Can you make a bridge using exactly eight planks?
• Is an expansion with three boards also possible?
• Which structural element do all bridges have in common?

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Stations-ID: D061

Stations-ID: D064

?? English instruction:

The ring is spun on the dish. How long will it spin?

• How does the ring move?
• Which different movements can you observe?
• What do you hear?
• What do you think how heavy the ring is?

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Stations-ID: D099

Instruction:

Roll bar :
Not just rolls can roll! You can roll all kinds of interesting objects on our roll bar – and experience some surprises in the process! The different objects are presented again on the signs on the side walls. In the middle you will also find a flat table on which you can roll the bodies forward very slowly to observe them closely. Some of the bodies were produced using 3D printing. Can you find out which ones? You can find more information about 3D printing on the board on the right!

Please be very careful with the objects!

Oloids:
Let the two bodies roll down one of tables. Observe which parts of the oloids surface touch the ground!
How do you have to place it at the beginning so that it rolls straight downhill?
The geometry of the oloid is based on two circular disks pushed into each other and rotated by 90°.  This body is also called a disk oloid and rolls in a similar fashion as the oloid. The oloid is formed from the disk oloid by connecting the edges of the disks to each other with lateral surfaces.
The initially irritating-looking “antioloid” is based on the same basic geometric shape. If you look a little closer, you will again find the two circles of the disk oloid. Except that in the antioloid they are holes!
You can also recognize similarities to the Möbius strip, however the antioloid has two twists in its “strip” so that there are two clearly defined sides.

Wettrennen/”Downhill racing”:
The two pairs of bodies each have the same weight. Let them each roll down next to each other in pairs. Which of the two bodies is faster? How do they differ from each other?
Bodies with the same weight and external dimensions can still roll at different speeds! This is where rolling differs from falling, because (without air friction) all bodies fall at the same speed.
Although the two cans have the same mass, they contain different liquids. The glicerine in one can is much more viscous than the water in the other. This causes internal friction on the wall of the can, which slows down the rolling motion.
The two bodies with the steel struts are also similar, except for the position of the struts. If the struts are further out, it is more difficult for them to gain momentum because they oppose the rotational movement with a higher moment of inertia.

Sphericons:
The two objects are based on a Sphericon and a Hexasphericon. Place both bodies on the flat table, roll them slowly forward and observe the trajectory. Do you notice a difference between the two bodies?
Sphericons are created when a special body of revolution is cut along the central axis, rotated and rejoined. In the case of the “normal” sphericon, it is a double cone in which one half is rotated by 90° and then rejoined. The resulting body has similarities with an oloid and also rolls similarly. For the hexasphericon, two cones are taken as the basic body, with a cylinder between them. If you cut it in half, you get a regular hexagon as the cut surface. If you now rotate one half by 60 degrees, the cut surfaces fit together again. The resulting body is characterized by a sharp curve in the rolling track.
The bodies here look slightly different because additional cut-outs were made in each case.

The Wobbler:
Take the wobbler and roll it slowly over the flat table. How does it move? Now let it roll down an inclined plane. How do you have to place it so that it rolls straight down?
When rolling, the wobbler looks as if it is moving in serpentine lines. If you were to roll the wheels in paint and let them roll over a sheet of paper, you would actually get a wavy line, a sine curve to be precise! Nevertheless, the center of gravity of the body (similar to the oloid) moves in a straight line downhill.
Incidentally, the wobbler is also quite easy to make yourself! All you need is a roll-shaped piece that you can easily cut up. You could use a salami, for example. Instead of cutting off two straight slices as wheels, simply place the knife at a slight angle. If you now connect the two parts with 3 skewers, for example, you already have a wobbler.

Stations-ID: D071

Stations-ID: D067

Instructions:

You can find different discs of wood and aluminium in front of you.

• Take one of the discs and let it fall from above through the tower. What can you observe?
• Do the discs fall differently?
• Are the discs magnetic?
• What are the properties of aluminium and copper?

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Stations-ID: D072

Instructions:

The inflatable ball foats in an airstream.

What happens, when the source of the airstream is slowly tilted to one side and brought back to it’s original position?

• How does the ball move in the airstream?
• Try pushing the ball out of the airstream carefully, what do you feel?
• What do you feel when you hold the ball next to the airstream?

The Bernoulli family produced a line of important mathematicians in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of them was Swiss-born Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782). Aside from his work on gambling strategies, he founded the field of fluid mechanics by describing the behaviour of flowing liquids and gasses. Because of the importance of his findings, the phenomenon of the ‘Floating Sphere’ is also called ‘the Bernoulli Effect“.

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Stations-ID: D062

?? English instruction:

The Vortex Cannon makes beautiful smoke-rings that drift through the entire hall.

• What do you feel, when you stand right in front of the ‘Cannon’?

• Observe the smoke-rings drifting through the air. Is their shape and speed always the same?

• What happens, when a quarter of the opening of the Vortex Cannon is closed, what happens, when it is half closed?

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Stations-ID: D086

Instructions:

Start and endpoint are the same for both spheres.

One of the spheres rolls along an inclined plane, the other takes a longer way.

• Which will reach its goal first?
• Which sphere arrives at its destination first, which arrives quicker?
• What would happen, if the spheres were of different sizes?

Playing with marble runs is not just a nice physics’ pastime. Designers of roller coasters or toboggan runs can not do without a solid knowledge of rolling curves and their mathematical description.

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