The world is upside down today.

A camera obscura in my opinion still belongs to the most impressive hands on exhibits in the optical field. It makes the visitor experience in a simple way how a lit up object is projected on a translucent screen without any technical support. And because most of the visiors are not expecting the upside down view, they do what science exhibits exactlly are made fot: start asking questions. Why…? Just try and think about it. The citizens of Lübeck allready tried this out. The camera obscura is the second exhibit of another set of ten, that will monthly be opened in each of the 10 city districts. Each of them has a partner exhibit in the old city center, where the “Wissenschaftspfad” (Science parcours) was opened on January 13th this year.  (image source)

The according coloured triangles serve as seats and are symbolizing, that the exhibit is part of the initiative according to the “Stadt der Wissenschaft” (city of Science), that Lübeck is awarded in 2012. At the moment the triangles are still grey due to the cold weather, but the picture above gives you an impression how it hopefully will look like soon, when they get painted.

Pixel, pixel on the wall…

The first of the second set of ten outdoor science exhibits in Lübeck is the “Pixelwand” (pixel wall). Every exhibit in the city center (look at previous posts)  will be accompanied by an according exhibit in one of the ten city districts. St. Lorenz-Süd has the honor to be the first where this beautiful pixel wall was opened on February 4th. Due to the cold weather of minus 15 degrees celsius that day, the final set of the base needed to be done later. Luckily it didn’t keep the citizens of Lübeck to express their love for their new interactive exhibit. (image source)

Möbius, Moebius, Mobius… where is your outer side?

Ever tried to cut a paper Mobius strip in half? Or even in three parts (please along the centerline)? Well, I won’t blab this little surprise here, but try on your own! For the citizens of Lübeck we started with a simple exercise: just follow the border of this stainless steel Mobius strip with your finger and look where you end up. No outside? No inside either! (image source)

Telescope, kaleidoscope or octoscope?

Some of Lübeck’s citizens where wondering what a telescope shall tell them at the entrance of the historic city center. But sneaking a peek through the supposed to be known object they got surprised by beautiful mirrored structures. No, without colored glass chips inside – because then it would have been a kaleidoscope and not an octoscope. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Why the description on the exhibit still says it’s a kaleidoscope? To cut a long story short: for sure it’s not a telescope…   (image source)

Welcoming the chaos… pendulum.

Does this look like chaos? No… not yet. But when you twist the red button, the three different discs start dancing in a chaotic way. This pendulum is an adaption to the known chaos pendulum with two single tilted metal arms. To make it safe for the outdoor use, we developed this version with the help from our exhibit builder – and we love it! (image source)

Houston? Can you hear me?

Stick your head through the opening and turn left and right. By working like a satelite dish the sound waves will be focused and you can hear the surrounding sounds increased. Our exhibit builder Felix Scharstein allready became clearaudient. (image source)

Learning by Spinning.

Do you know how a centrifuge works and what it is used for? Well… most of the children we met on our press walkabout for the Wissenschaftspfad (Science Parcours) in Lübeck knew it better to explain then me. But good to know, that these exhibits are spread all over the historic city and make you explore things again, that we forgot again after school is a while ago allready. At least these two ladies had a lot of fun spinning and spinning and spinning… (image source)