Stations-ID: D046

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D052

Instructions:

Stations-ID: D047

Instructions:

Three mirrors are set up to form a triangle. Who enters must take care to not lose themselves in their own reflections.

• Can you look at yourself from all sides without moving?

• Raise your right hand. Which of your reflections raise their right hand, which their left?

The Earth Tower shown at Expo 2005 in Japan is thought to be the largest kaleidoscope in the world. Like a normal kaleidoscope, it is triangular – but 47 meters high.

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Stations-ID: D045

Stations-ID: D073

Instructions:

Attention! Please no more than two people on the platform!

Get on the platform and slowly move forwards. What do you see when you look down? What happens when you go further forward?

Stations-ID: D014

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D053

Instructions:

Two mirrors are hemispherically curved.

• What part of your surroundings can you see in them?
• How does your reflection change when you approach the mirrors?
• Look in the mirror. Which part of the room do you see? Compare that image with the one of a flat mirror.
• Look at yourself in the mirror. Slowly approach the mirror’s surface.

In antiquity, glass mirrors were only known in combination with polished metal plates, but in the 14th century a new method of production emerged: Liquid glass was blown into spheres and coated with metal alloys while it was still hot.

Stations-ID: D051

Instructions:

Take one of the wheels out of its slot and hold it in front of your face, so that you are looking at its black back. Now look at the mirror through the uppermost slot with one eye. Spin the wheel – slowly at first, then faster. First to the right, then to the left.

• What do you see on the disc?
• What do you see in the mirror when you look through the slots in the disc while it is rotating?
• What happens when the rotation is very slow?
• What do you see when looking directly onto the rotating disc?

The Belgian physicist Joseph Antoine Plateau (1801-1883) and the Austrian mathematician and geodesist Simon Ritter von Stampfer (1792- 1864) independently described the principle of perforated rotating discs for the representation of motion sequences.

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Stations-ID: D055

?? English instruction:

Choose a Partner whom you want to see infinitely often and look at each other through the kaleidoscope.

Are all mirror images the same?

• Ask your partner to close one eye – which eye is closed now in your partner’s mirror images?

The word “kaleidoscope” comes from the Greek and is made up of the word parts καλός (kalós) “beautiful”, εἴδος (eidos) “shape” and σκοπέω (skopéο) “to see”.

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Stations-ID: D063

?? English instruction:

Plane mirrors and double and triple-sided corner reflectors are mounted on a rotating wheel.

Turn the winch. What happens to your reflection?

• How many reflections can you see?

• Count the rotations of the mirrors, then count the rotations of your reflections.

• In what position must the two sided corner reflector stand in order for your reflection to be upside down?

In the 19th century, the French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819-1868) developed a method to measure the speed of light. Rays of light where reflected between a rotating mirror and a stationary mirror. Focault determined the speed of light by measuring the displacement between the starting point of the rays of light and their subsequent reflection. He measured the speed of light to be 298.000 km/s, rather close to the speed of light in vacuum, 299.792,458 km/s.

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Stations-ID: D057
Instructions:

Plane mirrors and double and triple-sided corner reflectors are mounted on a rotating wheel.

Turn the winch. What happens to your reflection?

• How many reflections can you see?
• Count the rotations of the mirrors, then count the rotations of your reflections.
• In what position must the two-sided corner reflector stand in order for your reflection to be upside down?

In the 19th century, the French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819-1868) developed a method to measure the speed of light. Rays of light were reflected between a rotating mirror and a stationary mirror. Foucault determined the speed of light by measuring the displacement between the starting point of the rays of light and their subsequent reflection. He measured the speed of light to be 298,000 km/s, rather close to the speed of light in vacuum, 299,792.458 km/s.

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Stations-ID: D041

?? English instruction:

Two people stand at the edges of the mirror facing each other.
Stand at the edge of the mirror in such a way that one leg is behind and one leg
is in front of the mirror, so that only half of your body can be seen. To keep your
balance you can also hold on to the bar behind the mirror. Now raise your leg in
front of the mirror and watch each other’s mirror image.
Do you have more ideas for similar illusions?
• What do you see? What do the others see?

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Stations-ID: D027

Instructions:

Step between the two mirrors and look into them.

How many mirror images do you see? Are they all the same?

• Count the number of mirror images

• Lift your right hand. What are your mirror images doing?

• In what angle are the mirrors placed to each other?

• Look carefully at your face in the mirrors.

Humans are not the only ones who can recognise themselves in the mirror. The so-called ‘mirror test’ is a criterion for the existence of self-awareness in animals.  To do this, the animals’ forehead or chest is marked with a conspicuous spot. If the animal tries to remove the mark, this is an indication that the animal recognises the reflection as its own. In addition to infants, great apes and some toothed whale species also pass the test.

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Stations-ID: D019

?? English instruction:

Stand between both mirrors.

Compare this experiment with the mirror tunnel – what are the similarities, what are the differences?

• Look at your mirror images – how often can you see yourself from the front and from behind?

• What would you see if the mirrors were standing parallel to each other?

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Stations-ID: D054

Instructions:

• What letters do you recognise?
• Which words can you lay?

Stations-ID: D048

Instructions:

Put the toy blocks into the mirror book and change the angle by adjusting the relative position of the mirrors.

• Look into the Mirror Book. At which angle must the two mirrors be so you can see your face properly?
• Open the book to a right angle and put the toy blocks into it. How many mirror images can you see?
• Now close the book slowly; at which angles can you see complete mirror images?

Since ancient times, “mirror” (lat. speculum) has been a term for a collection of texts used for orientation and reflection of one’s own life circumstances.  Well known is the “Sachsenspiegel”, for example, in which Eike von Repgow first recorded the legal knowledge of the Middle Ages in writing.

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Stations-ID: D044

?? English instruction:

Two mirrors are standing parallel to each other and a small slot allows the view into the infinite.

• Hold your hand into the Mirror Tunnel while you are looking through the slot – how often can you see it?

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Stations-ID: D043

?? English instruction:

This special kaleidoscope consists of a cube with mirrors on it’s inner walls.

Look into it from above – which symmetries can you see?

What happens to the different reflections when you rotate the cube slowly?

• How many reflections can you see?

• Look at the planes, edges and corners of the cube.

• Which reflections are rotating and which are not?

• Put your head inside the rotating cube.

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Stations-ID: D050

Instructions:

Look in the mirror and draw or write in such a way that you can see and read it correctly in the mirror. Try to draw a cross or a house. Master illustrators can even draw the Olympic rings (remember: three rings on top, two rings below!)

• Start with drawing vertical and horizontal lines – which ones are causing you more difficulties?
• Try to draw with your eyes closed. Can you recognise your drawing correctly in the mirror?
• How many tries do you need until you can write your name so that you can read it in the mirror?

“I have many visions in my head. I just do not know what they mean” – Lewis Carroll, Alice through the Looking Glass

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Stations-ID: D049

Instructions:

Three mirrors are standing vertically to each other. Is it possible to get a mirror image in such a construction?

• What can you see at the centre, where all three mirrors meet?
• How many reflections can you see?
• Move back and forth in front of the triple mirror and look into the centre. What can you see?

Surface reflectors, such as those found on bicycles, have a reflective surface in the form of many small triple mirrors and are also known as “cat’s eyes”. The eyes of real cats also reflect incoming light, but this is due to the tapetum lucidum, a layer of light – reflecting cells in the cat’s eye

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Stations-ID: D058

Instructions:

In front of you, you find a twisted space. Where is up and down?

• Step through the door and lie in different positions. Can you fly?

• Observers can see you from the wooden stairs.

Please take off your shoes before entering.

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Stations-ID: D042