Stations-ID: A004

Instructions:

Light streams into the camera through a little opening in the door. Observe the projection on the screen. How does the image change, when the size of the opening is changed or a lense is placed in front of it? Enter the Camera and close the door. How long does it take before you can see something?

• Open and shut the aperture in the door slowely. What happens?
• How does the image change when you use the different pinholes?
• Open the door and examine the premises, then shut the door and examine the projection. is it mirrored or flipped?

The word camera comes from the latin phrase camera obscura, meaning “dark room”. The principle of the pinhole camera was known in Antiquity and was described exhaustively in the 10th centurz by Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haitham (956-1039/1040), latinized as Alhazen. The Arab mathematician rejected the then-prevelant idea of a beam of vision, which could explain reflection-based phenomena, but not what was observed in the camera obscura. 

Stations-ID: A002

Instructions:

Can you stand straight? Check yourself and the others, in what angle are you standing to the floor?

• Position the moveable wooden channel straightly. You can check if you’re right by placing a marble on it.

• The pendulum points straight down after being taken out of it’s holder.

• Using a wooden marble, give a guess as to which one of the boxes the tip of the pendulum will point at.

• Where does the marble have to start to be able to traverse the whole marble track?

Not only in Jena can you find leaning houses. A timbred house in Ulm dating from the 14th century is advertized as the most crooked hotel in the world. The Oberhafenkantine in Hamburg, the old fulling mill in Wernigenrode and the ‘leaning houses’ in Idstein and Großbottwar are also clearly out of balance.

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Stations-ID: A008

Instruction:

Two people stand in the opposite corner of the room. The others watch from outside the house. Which of the two people inside the house seem taller?
• Examine the shape of the room. What angles and surfaces can you see?
• Which of the two people is standing closer to you? Which one looks bigger?
This construction is based on the work of the American optician Adelbert Ames who probably built on Hermann Helmholtz’s ideas. This optical illusion finds a very practical use in the film industry; In the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films, the scenes involving hobbits and humans where shot in trapeze-shaped, distorted sets to create the illusion of difference in size.

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Stations-ID: A014

Instruction:

Press your hands on the different boards. Compare the different surfaces. What do you notice? Which boards are warmer, which are cooler? Is it a sunny day?

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: A005

Instruction:

With a partner, each take position in front of one of the dishes and speak into them. How must your heads be positioned in order for you to be able to understand each other well?
• Have you ever looked into a shaving mirror?
• Position your head so as to face the middle of the dish.
• Move back slowly.
• Where do you hear your partner especially well?
The dome of the old Hall of Representatives in the Capitol in Washington D.C. supposedly made secret conversations difficult. Apparently, it was constructed to make any conversation clearly audible on the other side of the room.

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Stations-ID: A003

Instruction:

Place your ear on one end of the spiral and speak into the other end slowly and
clearly.
• Use short words, say them loudly.
• How much time do you recon passes between speaking and hearing?
• How long do you think the listening spiral is?
Small male frogs that can’t find a mate because their vocal sacs are too small,
have a better chance of being heard when the temperature is lower; Because
cold air has better sound transmission, their calls are heard better.

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Stations-ID: A010

Instructions:

Go inside and listen!

• Where does the sound come from?
• Which way does the sound go?
• Where does the sound go?
• What could the sound be?

Stations-ID: A006

Instructions:

A round track – But is the chair driving on it in it’s initial position after one round?

• How many rails is the track made up of?

• In what position would you arrive after one round, if the chair could not turn?

The stainless steel construction has a different angle in every segment, which could not be calculated before the build. Therefore, a wooden model had to be built to scale to discern the correct measurements required.

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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: A011

Instructions:

Take place opposite of each other and speak towards the wall.

• Can you understand your partner better when he is facing towards you while speaking or when he whispers sideways, towards the wall?

• While speaking loudly, move towards the centre of the whispershell. What do you hear? What do the others hear?

One person takes position in the centre and tries to either speak to the others or listen to their conversation.

• Standing in the middle, say a few words. How does your voice sound to you? How does it sound to the others?
• Do you have an idea as to why the dome is open at the top?

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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: D046

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D077

Instructions:

Try to put the three geometrical shapes one after the other into the glass cube. Which one is relativaly easy, which one causes more problems?

The shapes also have names: Tetrahaedron, Stella Octangula and Cubotahedron. Which one is which?

Stations-ID: D083

Instructions:

An experiment for two. One blindfolds himself and pushes, the other sits on the cart and gives instructions. The aim is to follow the line without driving over it with the front wheels.

• Switch positions
• Who has it easier? The pusher or the helmsman?

Stations-ID: D068

Instructions:

Stations-ID: D052

Instructions:

Stations-ID: D085

Instructions:

• Try standing on the wooden cross so that none of the beams touch the floor.
• Can you balance on the board in such a way that a marble can roll along the milled groove?
• Can you do it with a partner?
• Are you better at it with your eyes closed or open?

The first sense that an embryo develops in the womb, is the perception of gravity. Already between the sixth and the eighth week of pregnancy, the equilibrium organ starts to develop. The corresponding nerve tracts are regarded as “precursors” for the development of the other perceptual systems.

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Stations-ID: D021

Instructions:

Balance the rod vertically on one finger. What happens, when you turn the rod around?

• First, balance the rod with the wooden ball on it at the bottom, after a few attempts turn the rod around. Which way is it easier to keep the rod in balance?
• You and your partner take different rods each, who can keep his rod in balance longer? What happens when you swap rods?
• Place two rods vertically on the ground and let go at the same time. Which one falls over faster? Does it make a difference, which way around you place the rod?

Keeping rotating plates in balance is a normal thing in any circus show now. Once you have the hang of it, it’s easier than it looks, because the mass of the plate stabilizes the rod. Try it!

Stations-ID: D020

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

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: D037

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: D092

English instructions:

A game of orientation in the dark:

Take your time and walk the dark path a few times.

• What do you think how big the room is?
• Go through the box a few times, you can also start at the back.
• How long do you think you need to get through the box?
• After every time you pass through it, try to reconstruct the layout of the black box using the little blocks.

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Stations-ID: D029

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D002

Instructions:

A normal pendulum swings back and forth steadily and predictably. But what happens when you attatch a second pendulum to it?

• What do you think, will both double pendulums move in the same way?

• Hold the longer pendulum and set the short one in motion.

Now let the longer pendulum go. What happens?

Based on his calculations in the field of astronomy, the French physician and mathematician Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) posed the question if all physical phenomena are predictable. In his bestseller “Science and Method” (1912) he gave the following answer: „It is possible, that small differences in the initial circumstances lead to big differences in the results (…) prediction becomes impossible and we are left with a random phenomenon.“

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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: D004

Instructions:

Place the oloid on the inclined plane and observe it’s movements.
• Which parts of the oloid’s surface touches the ground when it rolls?
• Observe the oloid exactly; can you see a circle or a square in it?

The artist and technician Paul Schatz (1898-1979) discovered this shape and
described many technical applications based on it’s unique movements while
rolling. These include use in ventilation systems or in mixers for homoeopathic
medicines.

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Stations-ID: D069

Instructions:

Spin the barrel.

Pluck one of the strings and observe it.

• What do you notice when the barrel spins slower or quicker?

• Pluck a string. What can you see? What can you hear?

• What do you see when the barrel is spinning?

• What happens when the barrel is spinning slower?

• What’s the difference between the strings?

The strobe effect has many technical appliances. On good record players, the strobe effect is used to discern and adjust the rotation speed of the turntable. It is also used to discern the revolution rate of rotating machines or discover faults in rotating parts.

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Stations-ID: D075

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D012

Instructions:

• Spin the disk slowly.
• Concentrate your gaze on the centre of the spiral for approximately one minute.
• Then turn your gaze to a motionless object, like your hand, or the wall.
• What can you see?
• What happens when the spiral is moving in the other direction?

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Stations-ID: D010

Instructions:

Spin the wooden disk slowly and look at it from a distance of 2 meters.
• What kind of patterns can you see on the disc?
• What do the patterns look like when the disc is rotating?

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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: D030

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D033

Stations-ID: D031

Stations-ID: D028

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D018

?? English instruction:

• What colours are in the pictures on the wall or your clothing?
• What colour does normal day-light or the light of the hand lamp have?
• What do the colours look like in white light?
• What colour does the sodium vapour lamp in this room have?
„Rays are not colored.“
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1827)

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Stations-ID: D056

Stations-ID: D080

Instructions:

Two players sit across from each other, neither seeing the other players ‘building site’. Each player has a set of building blocks. Build a shape out of the blocks that your partner can’t see. Give your partner instructions for your shape, without speaking. Can your partner succeed in recreating your shape?

• First, start with three or four different shapes
• How often must you play to understand each other well?
• Which ‘words’ do your ‘language’ have?

In accord with the sentiment ‘if you can’t talk about it, you don’t belong’, language is an effective tool for social exclusion. Even scientists from every discipline are occasionally accused of explaining actually simple concepts and facts with unnecessarily complicated (mostly Greek or Latin) terms. Thus, it is hardly surprising, that the doctrine of the hidden transmission of information also has a technical term: steganography.

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Stations-ID: D011

Instructions:

Position yourself one meter away from the disc and try not to fix a point, but let the whole thing work on you.

What do you observe?

In contrast to the other discs in this area, this disc cannot be rotated.

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Stations-ID: D060

Stations-ID: D017

?? English instruction:

Press down hard with one hand on each metal plate.

Observe the ammeter.

Does the experiment work with the hands of different people?

What happens, when you dampen your hands?

• What value is indicated by the ammeter, when you do the experiment? What value is indicated, when other people do it?
• Take a partner by the hand, with your free hands, press on one each of the metal plates. What value does the ammeter show?

Extend the chain by more people.

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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: D024

?? English instruction:

The wooden parts can be combined to form a knot. Can you find different ways of doing so?

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Stations-ID: D076

?? English instruction:

Take the Mirror ears, hold them to your ears and walk through the room.

Hold your ears to the sphere shaped listening lamp.

What can you hear?

• Stand in the room. What do you hear?

• What do you hear when you hold your ear to the openings in the sphere?

• Do all spheres sound the same?

• What do you hear if you cup your hand over the ear?

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Stations-ID: D093

English instructions:

How do little people feel in the big world?

• How big do you think a three year old child is?
• How big would someone have to be for this furniture to be normal sized?
• How do you feel sitting at the big table?

„Your grown up, when you butt is bigger than your head.“

Emilia, 6 years old

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Stations-ID: D079

Instructions:

Take a glove or a blue cloth.

Take hold of an aluminium bar with your thumb and index finger and move your hand slowly outward, varying pressure and speed as you go.

• Where can you generate a tone easily?

• What are the differences between the tones produced by the different bars?

• Listen along the length of the top bar, where is the sound at it’s loudest?

• Touch a bar gently with the tip of your finger, while it is ringing. What do you feel?

• What do you feel when you touch the the round top of a ringing bar?

This station was built by Dresden-based musician Jan Heinke. With the steel cellos and steel harps he has constructed, he has created a unique sound which can hardly be compared to the sound of classical instruments.

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Stations-ID: D001

Instructions:

Try stacking the building blocks in such a way that they stick out as far as possible over the first block.
Can the top block be placed so that it protrudes over the bottom block completely?
• Begin with two blocks: How far can the top block protrude?
• What happens when a third block is placed on top?
• What happens when a third block is placed between the first two?
• Try building the tower from top to bottom.

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Stations-ID: D065

Stations-ID: D014

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D059

Stations-ID: D032

Stations-ID: D016

?? English instruction:

Try and form as many words as possible from the letters at hand.
• You can play with or against each other.

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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: 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: D078

Instructions:

Try to move the ball through the maze together. The small walls can be repositioned to create new paths.

Stations-ID: D087

Instructions:

Whose sphere is the slowest?

Find a partner and build the longest possible marble run. You determine the rules yourself, e.g. whether all the slats are to be used, or only a certain number.The inclination of the surfaces can be changed by turning the rear ball feet. Please only turn it as far as is necessary to ensure a secure stand. 

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: 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: D082

Instructions:

Multiple photo-cells block a 7-Meter-long path. You must find a way through without triggering an alarm.
Exercise scenario: For easier orientation, rubber bands have been attached next to the photo cells.
Serious scenario: After the bands have been removed, you have to rely solely on your imagination.

• Which part do you find especially difficult?
• How many attempts do you need to pass through the labyrinth without mistakes?
• After how many practice runs, do you think you can make an attempt without the rubber bands for orientation?
• Observe other visitors doing the experiment

The American psychologist Karl Lashley (18900-1958) tried to localise memory in the brain. He let rats run through mazes and removed parts of their cerebral cortex afterward. His many experiments did not deliver any clear results, so he concluded (somewhat resignedly), that memory was not possible.

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Stations-ID: D098

Light-machine: Turn the red crank wheel. Now press the three red buttons in turn. What happens? What difference is there between the 3 lamps? Do you also notice a difference when cranking?

Stations-ID: D061

Stations-ID: D089

English instructions:

Wooden channels adhere to a metal wall with magnets.
• Who will build the most clever, the fastest or the slowest marble track?

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Stations-ID: D040

?? English instruction:

What patterns are created, when the disc is spinning and you draw on it? Can you draw straight lines?

• Before you start, think about what the pattern could look like.

• While the disk is spinning, move the chalk from the center to the edge of the disk evenly.

• While the disk is spinning, draw small circles.

• Try to draw a straight line on the spinning disk.

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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: D027

Instructions:

Try to fit all the wooden pieces into the box so that no part juts out.

Hint: Consider the direction of the wood grain!

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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: D015

?? English instruction:

Move your fingers over the surface of the globe slowly.

Touch the globe with the flourescent tube.

• What happens, when you touch the globe with a finger or with your whole hand? What does your hand feel like afterwards?

• Hold one end of the flourescent tube to the globe. What happens when you hold the tube around the middle?

• Place a coin on the globe and hold your finger, or a second coin, close to it. What do you see? What can you smell?

The Gas Discharge Lamp was invented by Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) in the early 20th century.

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Stations-ID: D026

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

Stations-ID: D006

Instructions:

Can the board be transported on these wheels, even though they are not round? Place the board on the wheels
• How does the axis of the wheels move when they turn?
• Place the board on the axisof the wheels.
• How many corners has a circle?
The rotary piston of the Wankel engine (Mazda MX5) is a type of Reuleaux wheel.

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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: 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
?? 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: D036

?? English instruction:

A long, heavy pendulum is set in motion. Stay a while, calmly observing the patterns it creates.

• Observe the movements of the pendulum, how do they change over time?

• How long does it take until the pendulum rests once more?

• Which basic shape can you recognize in the patterns in the sand?

In 1851, the French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819-1868) proved that the earth rotates using a pendulum of 67m length. In 1997, Imaginata repeated the experiment in the then-gutted ‘Uni-tower’ in Jena, earning a mention in the Guiness book of records. Today, the pendulum draws it’s patterns on the Imaginata’s own premises.

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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: D013

Instructions:

What do you see in blacklight?
• Examine the documents in the showcase, what do they look like in daylight?
• What do your clothes look like in blacklight?
• Smile at each other and you will be surprised!

Blacklight has a high percentage of ultraviolet light. UV – radiation is not visible for the human eye, but can cause specific materials to glow.By using such materials, banknotes or ID cards are made forgery-proof. 

Blacklight parties derive a great deal of their novelty from the use of flourescent materials. Gin Tonic is a very popular drink at such events because the chinin contained in tonic water appears blue in blacklight. It has been reported that students at MIT cover themselves in the cream filing of “Twinkies”, leading to a flourescent effect on the skin. 

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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: 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: D009

Instructions:

Concentrate your gaze on the striped wall and balance on one leg at the same time.

Now your partner makes the wall swing sideways.

• How long are you able to stand on one leg?

• What happens when you close your eyes?

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Stations-ID: D027

?? English instruction:

Step between the two mirrors and look into them.

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

• 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.

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Stations-ID: D022

?? Work in Progress. English Translation coming soon!

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: D074

Instructions:

Hold both ends of the tube to your ears. What do you hear if you speak or sing?

Ask a partner to scratch or knock on the tube.

• What do you hear when you hold both ends of the tube to your ears? What do you hear when you hold one end of the pipe to one ear?

• Can you hear if your partner is knocking on the left or right side of the tube?

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Stations-ID: D088

English instructions:

Put your head in one of the hollows of the humming stones and hum different tones to yourself: loud, quiet, high or low notes.

A partner can put his hand on your shoulder lightly during this experiment.

• What do you hear when humming in the hollow? What do you feel?

• Try different notes. Do they all sound the same?

• What does your partner feel when (s)he places his/her hand on your shoulder?

This experiment was designed by the educationalist, artist and carpenter Hugo Kükelhaus (1900-1984) for his ‘Experience Field for Developing the Senses’. He was inspired by stone age cult sites found on the island of Malta, he describes the effect of the experiment as follows: „The inner massage that is created in the head and reabsorbed by it signifies an unusually intense connection of the entire body from within.“

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Stations-ID: D090

English instructions:

A dark path awaits you with many a surprising obstacle.

Take a tour with your sense of touch!

• What do you expect in the corridor?
• What do you see, hear and feel?
• What do you see in your mind’s eye while going through the Tastatour?

„Through touch we find not only other bodies but also our own, and it is this double sensation that defines the character of

touch“

Menyhért Palágyi

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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: D023

?? English instruction:

An assortment of different sized round disks are stacked on a rod, sorted by
size. The whole stack is to be moved to one of the other two rods. The following
rules apply:
➢ Each move consists of moving a single disk from one rod to another
➢ No disk may be placed on top of a smaller disk
• First, try moving only three disks, how many moves are needed?
• After you have solved the ‘3-disk-riddle’, add more disks.
• Count the amount of moves needed

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Stations-ID: D058

?? English instruction:

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: D097

Instruction:

Pumping heat :
Turn the red crank wheel for a while. Now grasp the two copper coils with one hand each. Do you notice a difference? Where do you think it comes from?

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: D042

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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