"Delta Phi"
by Joachim Sauter The chrome-plated surface of the exhibit resembles a strongly moving water surface. Illuminated from above with a torch, the incoming light…
2x2 Puzzle
Four cubes fit together in the box. Each cube has 4 quarter-pictures, one on each of 4 faces. The other two faces are transparent, BUT they look onto the…
3D-Shadows
A tetrahedron on the ceiling or visitors on a floor panel are illuminated by a red and green lamp and thus cast a red and green shadow on the screen behind…
847 Compass needles
There are 847 compass needles attached to a disc. Because they are so close together, they influence each other. With a magnet, the compass needles can be made…
A riddle for intelligent and patient people
Puzzles for the astute and the patient. Of the eleven puzzles with strings, boards and rings, however, one cannot be solved. But which one?
A Slice of Turbulence
by Ned Kahn If the crest of the wave collapsed over the surfer off Hawaii and he could bring home a slice of salami from it, he would have the original to the…
A Table with loose Legs
How many supports does it take to stabilise a tabletop without the aid of screws or glue? The astute (but also the experimental) will find that three supports…
Additive Color Mixing
Light colours are mixed quite differently from paint colours. We have known since childhood that many colours mixed together in a pot of paint produce a dark…
Adhesive Air
Air is blown through a large funnel. Stand in front of it, but you will hardly feel it. If you now push the funnel slightly backwards, you will suddenly feel…
Aeolian Landscape
by Ned Kahn Alongside water and ice, wind is the shaping element of the natural landscape. This exhibit allows for the pleasurable "terraforming" of gently…
After Image
Not seeing nothing, but seeing nothing! A strong flash of light triggers a photochemical process on our retina. However, this process lasts longer than the…
Air Bubbles
A pump can be used to force air into a water-filled glass tube. However, not all air bubbles rise vertically. Some do, others choose more of a zigzag or spiral…
Air lift
A hole in the middle of the table, a tube open at both ends in the hole and a fan in front of it. In this tube there is a free-moving ball that is secured…
Air Mirror
Sit comfortably and check the stripy view at the end of the road. Now heat up the road. (A solid steel plate rapidly heats to 100°, warming the dark sand of…
Alike and unalike
Two identical sheets of wood are placed next to each other and compared. Since the perceptual system in the brain cannot perceive things in isolation, you see…
All Triangels are the same
Using different triangular shapes, congruent shadows are to be cast on a pattern wall with equilateral triangles.
Anamorphic Images: Cone
On a flat surface the images are distorted beyond recognition – a peculiar visual code requiring a special key. Slip the square sheets over the reflective…
Anamorphic Images: Cylinder
On a flat surface, the images are distorted beyond recognition - a special visual code needs a special key. Put the square panels over the reflective cylinder:…
Angled Mirrors
With two mirrors that can be brought to different angles to each other around an axis, polygons (so-called polygons) can be made in a simple way. At very…
Anti Gravity Mirror
This mirror construction turns a "half-observer" back into a seemingly complete one, makes one float in space or makes one grow additional pairs of arms or…
Ants
Observe the bustling activity of ants as they move through a large enclosure performing various tasks. This is made of transparent material so that visitors…
Ascending magma
by Ned Kahn No, it is not real magma, but this model magma nevertheless makes it clear to us what processes are going on deep under a volcanic vent. Air is…
Aurora
A strange "mirror" distorts points of light into long, luminous bands, comparable to the interplay of water and light when the sun rises. Why don't you just…
Back View
Step forward to check how neat (or not….) your bum really looks in those cool new jeans: every clothes’ store should have this back-view booth!
Ball in a Bowl
Anyone who has ever swung a hula hoop around their waist or a daler in a bowl knows what this is all about. Inside a large Plexiglas ball, two balls can be…
Which of the two balls reaches its destination faster? Of course, the one that runs the shortest distance between the start and the finish - or so you…
Ball on water-beam
What makes table tennis balls stick to the water fountain? Obviously, the ball does not ride in the middle of the jet and rotates so that it comes towards the…
Ball sorting machine
Here, "touching wood" is taken literally. Pierre Andrès has not designed his creations to be looked at, but rather to be shifted and manipulated, leveraged and…
Barium
Here you can see a piece of barium that weighs approx. 1 gram and consists of about 4.4 trilliards atoms. How heavy, do you think, 10 barium atoms are?
Bathroom Mirror
Sit quietly in front of the mirror and look closely at your face: sketch the outline, mouth, nose and eyes as you see them in the mirror. Now look at your…
Beam Bridge
This bridge illustrates the forces acting on a straight beam under load when it is only supported at the two opposite ends. As this beam consists of many small…
Benham's Disc
A rotating disc with a black and white pattern printed on it creates the impression of colours, even though there are no colours! Our colour receptors, the…
Bent Laser Light
The light that goes around corners! When light (in this case laser light) hits a thin structure such as a hair or a thin slit, it is deflected by it in…
Bernoulli’s Elephant
by Paul Spooner 2016, Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, England What is a pink elephant doing at Technorama? The Bernoulli Elephant is a work by the artist Paul…
Bicycle Wheel Gyroscope
Why is it so difficult to keep your balance when you ride your bike very slowly, but no problem when you ride a little faster? The spin created by the fast…
Blind Juggler
The Blind Juggler can juggle up to four balls at the same time without any sensors.
Blind Spot
If you stare with one eye at the apple on the tablet and slowly move it towards your face, at a certain distance the orange to the right of the apple seems to…
Blood Vessels of the Eye
In front of (and not behind) the retina of our eye runs a network of blood vessels. We just don't see them because the brain blocks out these constant…
Bouncing (Steel) Ball
Actually, everyone has dropped a ping-pong ball on the table and noticed that the clacking happens more and more rapidly until the ball finally stops. But…
Boyo
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. The boyo is the reverse of the yo-yo, where when the spool is unwound from the string, just before it…
Break the code
An encrypted text appears on the monitor, which has to be deciphered with as few failed attempts as possible. More than 400 quadrillion possibilities seem to…
Bridge the Gap
Building bridges is not so easy - especially when you are not allowed to use nails, screws or glue! Here you only have nine identical wooden blocks at your…
Captured Cloud
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. To get up close to clouds, you usually have to go high up in the mountains. You can easily step into…
Carousel of Faces
As you carefully adjust the light level, the mirror becomes a window onto a well-known face. Balance illumination with reflection, and merge your face with a…
Cartesian Diver
Every body experiences buoyancy when it is immersed in another "medium" - be it a liquid or even a gas. Ships, submarines, hot air or helium balloons - all…
Catenary Arch
Although known for a long time, it was probably the Romans who perfected the use of archways to create filigree structures. The arch has special static…
Chance Happenings
Here everything is left to chance: These cubes have on two sides a red circle the other four are white. For each roll of the remaining dice, those with the red…
Changeable Weather
How do you determine the average value of numerous individual measurements? Here, the average monthly rainfall can be determined experimentally.
Changing Sides
A wire cube rotates in front of a mirror. If you squint one eye and fix a front corner of the wire cube, you see a certain direction of rotation. If you now…
Chaotic fountain
by Bernard Gitton The 12 vessels on the fountain wheel are all the same size, have the same outflow and are filled again at the top with a steady inflow of…
Chaotic Pendulum
by Nicholas Rott Normal pendulums swing in a highly predictable and unspectacular manner like Swiss clockwork. Not so this pendulum! A longer light pendulum is…
Chaotic Pendulum II
by Ned Kahn Normal pendulums swing in a highly predictable and unspectacular manner like Swiss clockwork. Not so this pendulum! Three smaller pendulums are…
Christmas Balls
A pack of Christmas tree baubles - so what? Such spherical mirrors reflect the observer in such a way that he or she is everywhere in the centre - at last! If…
Circling Wave Umbrella
by Ned Kahn A circular fabric hangs limply around the central axis of rotation. When set in rotation (remember, for example, women wearing skirts at folk…
Circular Deformations
It's amazing what movements we think we see in the shapes of rotating discs! Ovals wrap around standing circles, cones tumble around each other in a…
It's amazing what movements we think we see in the shapes of twisting discs! Ovals wrap around standing circles, cones tumble around each other in a…
Clear Light
by Cork Marcheschi A very ordinary fluorescent tube has remained without what makes it so: the coating with luminescent material. Thus, through the clear…
Cloud Chamber
Atomic (and sub-atomic) particles from space and from various radioactive processes on earth leave short-lasting “vapour trails” behind them in the cloud…
Cloud Rings
by Ned Kahn Cloud maker of a special kind! If you press the lid of this huge basin filled with water mist, fog rises through the hole in the middle - up to 7…
Coarse or Fine
One hand strokes a coarse sandpaper, the other hand strokes a fine sandpaper, then both hands simultaneously stroke a sandpaper whose grain size lies between…
Cold and Warm Light Mirrors
Without protection, the lamp in a slide projector would melt the valuable slide. How can you protect the slides? This exhibit shows the effect of different…
Cold Test
Two visitors each grasp two metal pipes with both hands. However, the metal pipes are extremely cold! Most people can only touch the pipe, which is about 4…
Color Contrast
Colour squares on different coloured backgrounds are to be compared and the subjective impression checked with a stencil. Observation: our brain cannot…
Colour Corner
Set two mirrors at 62°, cap them with a third, and mount a lightbox at their apex. This kaleidoscopic art piece is another Caspar Schwabe creation: “2%…
Colour Removal
A prism splits the white light into its spectral colours. If a colour filter is held in the beam path, only certain spectral colours can pass through. A colour…
Colour Reversal
A green tree against an orange background, a rotating disc with a recess, followed by a white surface - so what? If you let the disc rotate very quickly, so…
Coloured Shadows
Three lamps in the colours red, green and blue illuminate the white background, but there are six different coloured shadows: Miracles of colour addition. To…
Confused Sea
by Ned Kahn Here you can play wind god at will with a rotating and adjustable fan in a semi-circular plexiglass bowl filled with water - Aeolus would have…
Conic Sections with Laser
A laser beam circling to the cone is caught on a screen; depending on the screen position, circles, ellipses, parabolas or hyperbolas are created.
Convection cells
by Ned Kahn L'air ou le liquide chaud s'élève, mais à d'autres endroits, il est forcé de redescendre. Ces formations sont appelées cellules de convection,…
Conway Cube
Your spatial imagination is challenged here. A cube is to be put together from nine parts - there are three 1x1x1 cubes and six 2x2x1 cuboids.
Coriolis Fountain
What happens to the water jet when you turn around your own axis while holding a garden hose in your hand? That's right, the water jet turns behind you. In…
Corner Reflector
From whichever direction you direct a beam of light into the three mirrors mounted at right angles to each other, the reflected light emerges in exactly the…
Corpuscles of the Eye
Looking at the pulse! If you look into a blue light source, you can see pulsating dots, even a whole network of pathways. These are the red blood cells in the…
Counter-Balanced Pendulum
How would the same pendulum swing on the moon compared to the earth? We cannot change the Earth's gravity, but we can simulate a change in gravity by moving a…
Coupled magnetic sculpture
Magnets are attached to the spokes of several wheels, which influence each other. If you turn one of the wheels, the movement is passed on to the other wheels…
Coupled pendulums
Two identical pendulums are connected to each other via a spiral spring. If one of the pendulums is set in motion, the energy of the swinging pendulum is…
Coupled Rotary Pendulums
Two horizontal rods with movable weights mounted on top of each other are connected by a steel band. If one rod is deflected, it begins to swing and gradually…
Critical Angle
Light usually propagates in a straight line. But what happens when it hits a boundary surface? Depending on the angle of incidence, the light is deflected more…
Crooked Tiles
Black and white squares can be shifted to form stripes or a chequerboard pattern, and the joints can be lit with different brightnesses. The horizontal lines…
Crushing Mill
Similar to a carousel, three brass wheels rotate in a circle on a spring-loaded base. The individual brass wheels represent independent spinning tops. Spinning…
Cube in a Mirror
Move this wire-skeleton cube towards and away from the mirror: when does its mirror image appear biggest?
Cube to Infinity
This cube is as big as a garden hut, mirrored inside, with its corners cut out so kids can crawl in and tall people can see what’s happening inside. What’s…
Cubes cubed
Pull on the cord to create a translucent cube. Keep on pulling to make it grow. Inside the kaleidoscope, it expands backwards as well as forwards so it grows…
Dancing iron particles
by David Durlach 81 electromagnets are covered with fine iron dust. The electromagnets can be controlled either via a sensor surface or via prepared programmes…
David versus Goliath
Who is stronger? Push the plunger down. Which of you feels like Goliath and which feels like David? The air pressure is the same in both cylinders. Their…
Deep Walls
Shadows in motion - moving silhouettes. On a large projection surface, divided into 16 fields, shadow images move towards and away from each other. Each…
Deformable Mirror
Here is whole-body morphing at the touch of a switch in a mirror the size of a door. Curvature is controlled at 15 points, offering wild effects from ‘Diagonal…
Delayed Viewing
There are fish on a table that have to be caught with a magnet on a fishing line and brought into a matching hollow shape in the center of the table. The…
Depth Enhancer
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. When you look at your surroundings through the depth enhancer, they seem quite unfamiliar. The depth…
Dialog in the Vase
Sculpture by Christoph Züng Here, two basic elements of perception vie for your attention. On the one hand, we prefer objects to their background (in this case…
Diced Snake
At the beginning of the snake of about 60 dices the thrown amount of numbers are firstly being continued to be counted and then proceeded with the numbers…
Different Discs
This exhibit is about the conflict between the visual situation and what I expect from it, how the weights feel, and the feeling when I actually lift the…
Digital Sundial
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. A digital" sundial without electronics: It does not cast a shadow, but projects the time as luminous…
Disappearing Ghost
Dieses Puzzle besteht nur aus drei Teilen: Ein Grundelement und zwei Topelemente. Das Bild dieses einfachen Puzzles zeigt einige Geister; doch vertauschen Sie…
Disappearing Glass Rods
What "optical density" is all about is known to anyone whose drinking straw suddenly appeared bent in a glass. Water and air are apparently optically different…
Distorted Room (Ames Room)
Through a peephole, this room appears absolutely ordinary. But people seem dwarfed on one side and giant on the other. A walk into the room shows how crooked…
Distorting faces
by Niclas Roy A whole row of screens each shows the viewer's face. If you hold a magnet to the screen, the electrons in it are deflected, distorting the image.
Do they fit in the Box?
Either a cube, a tetrahedron, a double tetrahedron or a cuboctahedron are to be packed into a given glass cube.
Double Refraction in Calcite Crystals
If you look at the lettering through the calcite crystal, the lettering appears twofold. Since the strength of the refraction of the light depends on its…
Drawing on the Move
A ruler lies above a disc with variable rotation speed. When the pencil is held still on the ruler or moved back and forth along the ruler at a steady or…
Droplet Fountain
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. A single drop falls and causes ripple patterns in the fountain. What happens to them at the edge of…
Dual Mirror I
by James Seawright This work consists of 110 mirror tiles arranged into two concave surfaces. The radii of the concavities are the same, but the mirrors are…
Edges communicate Information
Two grey panels each show a small white cross and a white area to the right of it. In one case the area is sharply delineated from the grey background, in the…
Efron’s Dice
There are 4 dice with loaded numbers. If you let the first player choose a die, you can always choose one from the remaining three dice with which you…
Electromagnetic cannon
The electromagnetic cannon consists of a coil with an iron core that can be abruptly energised at the push of a button. If there is a metal ring on the iron…
Electromagnetic Puppet Theatre
Three stations each contain four coils whose frequency and phase shift can be adjusted. Figures with magnetic legs can be placed on the stations. The current…
Electromagnetic railway
A track with a magnetic toy train on it runs through a large coil. At the push of a button, current flows through the coil. This creates a magnetic field in…
Electrostatic dance
A plastic plate is rubbed against a leather surface and thus electrostatically charged. The plastic plate is then placed on a copper plate, whereupon the…
Elusive Mirror
Look into the magic mirror. Can you outsmart it?
Emotion detector
Here, the skin resistance of a person is measured while being interviewed by another person at the same time. The skin resistance is influenced by the…
Encoding Text - Caesar’s disc
Texts can be encoded and decoded by means of two letter discs that can be moved in relation to each other. Such methods were already used to protect…
Equal Times
Normally, the time it takes a ball to roll down a plane depends on its position on the plane. But not so here: if you let go of the two balls in the track at…
Escher’s endless Staircase
When the top step becomes the bottom step and vice versa. Be glad that you will never have to walk this infinite staircase. But still, the model is…
Experimental Stations 1 to 6
On a hexagonal table is a circus of hands-on activities, all to do with reflections in every-day life: What’s in a surface? Reflections off curved…
Experiments with polarized Light
Light is a wave - and waves can oscillate in different directions. This can be studied and observed very impressively with the help of pool filters and some…
Eye Viewer
Our eye and a photo camera have many things in common. For example, our retina can adapt to changes in brightness to a certain extent (in the case of a camera,…
Eyes in the Back of your Head
With this device you can see the skills of your hairdresser: How sharp is the cut around her neck? Are you happy with the fit of their collar? Are you starting…
Face Wipe
This is a conflict that arises when different information reaches the brain from the right or left eye. In this exhibit, a grinning cat is painted on one side…
Falling tiles
Various metal plates are dropped between two rows of magnets. The magnets generate eddy currents in the plates that slow them down.
Falling Water
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Every 20 minutes, 5 tonnes of water plunge from this cube into the depths. With the help of a…
Fantascope
Two printed discs with beam-like slits make fantastic "films" run when set in counter-rotation and viewed through one of the discs. Thanks to the inertia of…
Favourite Uncle
by Austine Wood-Comarow A "polage" (from "polarisation" and "collage") is the favourite uncle depicting a scene from Greek mythology. The artwork consists of…
Feeling Eyes
An oval saucer is viewed through a lens that distorts only in one axis. Depending on the position of the lens, the saucer appears from ogival to completely…
Feeling for Weight
Find the Fish!
The shape of a wire fish corresponds only to a precise spot in the patterns of an extract from a parquet-Penrose.
Floating Rings
Three rings seem to move like turned-on coins on the black column, so that it looks as if three individual, loose rings are floating in perfect balance. When…
Floating Tap
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. If this tap were not in the Technorama Park, it would probably have come from the land of milk and…
Fog wind tunnel
With this exhibit we want to make air currents visible. We put different objects into the air flow, which can also be varied in position. This makes the flow…
Fountain of Instability
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. In the middle of the pond, water sprays out of an extremely flexible hose end. At low speed, the end…
Fragrance Memory
In a number of identical looking smelling containers there are pairs of different scents, pleasant and unpleasant. The task is to find these pairs. In…
Fragrance Wheel of Fortune
There are no cash prizes on this wheel of fortune, but pleasant or unpleasant scents, depending on where the wheel stops. The moment of smelling and the scent…
Fresnel Lens
If two visitors look at each other through this large Fresnel lens, they see the opposite with an enormous upper body. Since only the surface curvature of a…
Fresnel Mirror
by Dave Barker A mirror that spreads out your face so that you can almost look into your ears! Stand on the red dot, look into the mirror exactly in the…
Frozen Hand
If a hand is moved quickly back and forth across a plate, it is always flashed at the same position by a stroboscopic flash. From the viewer's point of view,…
Full body involvement
Perceive quickly and react immediately with coordinated, skillful movements. Developed as a piece of sports equipment, “Full Body Involvement” promotes…
Generator track
A track with a magnetic toy railway on it runs through a large coil. When the toy track is moved in the coil, a current is generated in the coil. The direction…
Gentle Hands
One hand strokes a coarse grid, the other hand strokes a fine grid, then both hands simultaneously stroke a grid whose mesh size lies between the other two.…
Get the wrong end of the stick?
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Here you can literally "pull the lever" and lift up to three other people, even if they are all much…
Ghost Images
by Bill Bell Under a steady gaze, a viewer will see only a slight flickering light in a dozen columns of tiny bright LED bulbs. However when the viewer tries…
Giant Pin Screen
by Ward Fleming With 250,000 movable plastic pins, three-dimensional impressions of your body are created on the world's largest pin screen.
Glass Bead Rainbow
The smallest glass beads are illuminated with a torch - a rainbow becomes visible! The glass beads act like small prisms, they split the light into its…
Goal-oriented grass
Plants, such as grasses, have cells that perceive gravity. This enables them to recognize where above and below is, and they can grow vertically and stably. In…
Gothic Arch and Flying Buttress
This structure consists of a high pointed arch and the buttress with buttresses and arches. Find out what an important role the buttress has in the stability…
Gravitational model or Energy Well
A steel ball can be sent on an orbit in this huge, funnel-shaped vessel via an inclination-adjustable inlet lever. The ball does not just plop straight into…
Grease Spot Photometer
What's that grease spot on the paper between the two lamps? This is an ingenious trick to compare the brightness of two light sources on one surface. If both…
Gyroscope in a Suitcase
When you take this case out of its holder, the first thing you notice is that it is quite heavy. Nothing special as far as that goes. But try turning around…
Half Shadow
We see colours that are not there - how can that be? A hand is illuminated by a white and a red lamp. In the shadow area that is only illuminated by the white…
Hands-on Mirage
The laser beam brushing the surface of the hot plate is visible until you blow down through the hole. Your relatively cool breath above the hot plate makes a…
Harmonograph
by Ivan Moscovich Two pendulums next to each other rarely swing in unison, but depending on when they were struck, one swings earlier, the other later. If they…
Hermann Grid and Scintillating Grid with Variants
From a certain distance with a steady gaze, it seems to "flicker" on the images, to scintillate. Hermann grid: If you look at the grid from a distance of about…
High-voltage slide
A slide and its platform stand on several large insulators. Anyone who slides down is electrostatically charged. If you then touch the earthed metal ball or an…
Higher and further
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. The length and shape of each jet depends on the pressure in the water cylinder. Take a look at the…
Hinged Kaleidoscope
Slowly close the hinged door, and count the number of regular polygons traced by the red cord: triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon,... Just before the door…
Hot - Cold
Can something be hot and cold at the same time? We have no sensory experience for that and our temperature receptors give us crazy feedback! In this copper…
Hot heap
The living organisms contained in a compost heap, such as bacteria and fungi, break down dead organic material and thereby gain energy for their life…
Hot Spot
When a visitor stands in front of the concave mirror, he initially sees nothing but his own image. With a little skill, it is possible to place one's own hand…
How big is a Million?
If you've never really had an idea of how much a million actually is, then set yourself the challenge of finding one black bead among 999,999 yellow ones at…
Human electrical circuit
Several cubes with metal surfaces are placed near a larger cube. If you connect the surfaces of the cubes with your body, current flows through the body and…
Human Pointer
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Show the true local time with your own body shadow. You are the hand on this sundial: you indicate…
Hyperbolic Slot
At the sight of the straight rod and the cut-out slit in the red Plexiglas, one thinks that the rod would never pass through without being bent. But it is…
I
When one climbs the ladder and looks around the room, it is seemingly completely devoid of shapes and contours, and the lighting is obscured. The entire field…
I am a function
Here you can become the plaything of a function and actively recreate the course of a function. Your task: A given function curve is to be reproduced by…
I You Us
Up to five people can climb the ladder here. When you look around from the ladder, you see ... yes, what actually? The room seems to be completely devoid of…
Icy Bodies
by Shawn Lani Dry ice, solid carbon dioxide at -78° Celsius, has the remarkable property that it does not melt when heated but immediately becomes gaseous -…
Image Relay
Four large lenses (three can be folded in and out, one can be moved along the longitudinal axis) are mounted one behind the other in such a way that two people…
Impossible Nuts
When the brain resists what the eye sees: A pencil pushes through two nuts in a seemingly impossible way. If you look closely, you notice that the big pencil…
Inclined Chess
by Urs B. Roth Obviously, this chess game appears completely misshapen. And yet there is an angle of vision where the distorted pieces and the grotesquely…
Infalling Cloud
by Ned Kahn The endlessly into the funnel falling and swirling fogs resemble a galactical spiralfog. The water steam is denser than the surrounding air and is…
Infrared camera
A highly sensitive infrared camera measures the heat radiation emitted or reflected by an object. The data is converted into a coloured image that represents…
Ink Fractals
Ink blots can be analysed not only in depth psychology, but also mathematically. By pressing two acrylic plates together, the ink distributes itself regularly…
Inner magnetic structures
With the help of a microscope, the magnetic structures ("domains") inside a magnetisable platelet are made visible. The result is a pattern of light and dark…
Internal Waves
Sure, waves are created at sea, in which the air above is not entirely uninvolved. But they also occur at the boundary between two immiscible liquids such as…
Inverted Double Pendulum
It is difficult enough to balance ONE pole vertically on one's fingers and impossible to balance TWO poles connected by a joint. And certainly not when the…
Inverted Foucault Pendulum
The inclination of the tube in which a thin rod is made to swing can be adjusted. In addition, the hemisphere with the whole device can be rotated by hand. How…
It's About Time
by Bill Spinhoven In this installation, a video camera captures visitors' position and movements, temporarily stores the data, and then projects the sequences…
Jellyfish
by Bernd Weinmayer A group of glass jellyfish - glassblowing art of the highest order - filled with colourful glowing neon and a few promillen of argon -…
Ju-Ju Bees
by Cork Marcheschi In a double-walled glass bowl filled with inert gas are dozens of modified incandescent bulbs, also filled with inert gas, which become…
Jumping Water
If you observe the water hoppers in this exhibition object, you might ask yourself a few questions. Is solid water flying through the air here? And do all the…
Jupiter Pendulum
Strangely enough, the period of oscillation of the pendulum does not depend on the mass of the pendulum, but on the gravitational acceleration, which is only…
Kaleidoscope Experiments 1 to 6
Oversized toy or mathematical puzzle? Six kaleidoscopes invite experimentation and reward with crystalline 3-D images. Each kaleidoscope is equipped with a…
Kalliroscope©
by Karl Matisse A vortex generator or rather spectator par exellence. Give the turntable a short push, then stop it or even turn it in the opposite direction -…
Kneading with magnets
In a bowl there are two strong horn magnets and a large quantity of small iron discs. The iron discs become magnetised near the magnets and can thus be kneaded…
Kopflos
In this exhibit, you can look at yourself in the mirror - but you can adjust the different stripes of the mirror.Maybe you can even manage to lose your head?
Landfall
by Shawn Lani Landscapes are formed over millions of years and are subject to constant but very slow change. Whether mountains or valleys - here you can change…
Large drain vortex
Usually we only look into the eye of a water vortex from above - e.g. in the bathtub outlet. Here we finally see it from the side and can regulate the flow…
Leonardo’s Bridge
An impressively simple way to build a free-standing bridge with just a few planks, thought up by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century. With the wooden slats…
Light Deformation
by Piero Fogliati An illuminated white form curves and multiplies in the air. The shadow of this form is a matching silhouette. A button allows you to slow…
Light Island
Mirrors, lenses, colour filters and much more invite visitors to play with light sources and the light split by a prism. The function of the prism, the…
Light Refraction
Light propagates in a straight line - but only as long as it is in a homogeneous medium. At the interface between different materials, the direction of…
Light Spiral
The light that spins! Polarised white light shines into a standing cylinder with a sugar solution. The sugar solution causes the direction of oscillation of…
Lights ON
Seven lights arranged in a circle, which are always switched on/off in sets of three by means of buttons, are all to be made to light up/not to light up.
Liquid Dynamics
What a wind tunnel is for air, a flow trough is for water: they make turbulence of objects visible. Different flow bodies can be positioned in the initially…
Lissajous Double Spring
Lissajous figures are the intertwined curves of a light-emitting diode that are created at the end of a spring rod. Such small works of art are the result of…
Lissajous Rods
A relatively thin metal rod that is twice as wide as it is deep vibrates differently from a metal rod whose ratio of width to depth is 3:2. A superposition of…
Look in the Clouds
This exhibit consists of a large screen onto which passing clouds in the sky are projected. In front of the screen there are some comfortable armchairs that…
Look into Infinity
Through holes in a movable mirror you look at a fixed mirror. In this way, we see a seemingly endless sequence of images, which can also be curved if the…
Loose Stone Bridge
Building a load-bearing bridge from a few loose stones? Using a template, the stones can be put together in the right order to form an arched bridge; this can…
Love is in the air
by Dr. Martin Oeggerli When magnified, inconspicuous pollen reveals a fascinating variety of structures with an almost artistic aesthetic.
Luminous sculptures
Two contacts are attached to each of three stations, which can be connected with the help of magnetic rods and iron balls. The rods contain light-emitting…
Lying Water Disk
When two jets of water collide, as here, the water is deflected sideways and usually forms a coherent water skin in the form of a disc. Surface tension is the…
Machine with Concrete / Machine set in Stone
by Arthur Ganson Für die Ewigkeit genügen zwölf Schneckenradgetriebe 50:1 hintereinander! Denn in fünfzig Betriebsjahren verschiebt sich das letzte Zahnrad um…
Magic Wand
Actually light is invisible. Well, at least we can't see it if it doesn't hit our eyes directly. Therefore a slide projection wouldn't be that intresting…
Magnet in copper bar
by Shawn Lani The two copper rods hang in space like a split log. Between them is a magnet that can be made to float with the help of a second magnet from the…
Magnetic balance
Underneath a large ring magnet is a transparent box with a small magnetic cube and a base made of graphite. At exactly the right distance, the weight of the…
Magnetic building blocks
There is a magnet in each of the different building blocks. Depending on the position of the poles, the building blocks can be put together or repel each…
Magnetic diversity
by Niklas Roy There are many electromagnetic objects in this large box. Everyone can explore for themselves where the phenomena can be found and how they can…
Magnetic repulsion
Make the Invisible Visible
What does "convection" actually mean? What happens to water when it is heated? The projection of a strong lamp shining through water heated by an immersion…
Make two into one
Three visitors sit at a table, two of them opposite each other, the third at right angles to them. The two people sitting opposite each other look through…
Maxwell’s Wheel
A large and very heavy wheel is attached to the hub on both sides by a textile band. When the wheel is turned, the textile band wraps around the hub, shortens…
Meanderings
by Michael Brown Take a slightly inclined glass plate and let a little water run over it. You would think that the water would find the fastest possible way…
Mega-Kaleidoscope
Duck down and step into the man-sized kaleidoscope: three huge mirrors set in a triangle. Ask a friend to look through the spy-hole, to see you at the centre…
Microscope Model
This simple microscope essentially consists of an object lens that magnifies the object about 6 times and an eye magnifier that magnifies the image of the…
Mimose
The leaves of the mimosa fold up as soon as you touch them. With this survival strategy the mimosa protects itself from predators, because the folded leaves…
Mirror Made to Measure
How tall a mirror do you need to see yourself from head to toe? Does the height change if you’re closer or further away? (No!) Using the remote control, you…
Mirror Maze
Design a maze with Einstein’s image as it’s goal. At your disposal are five mirrors, many wall pieces, and your trial-and-error learning of the laws of…
Mirror Writing 1
Handedness of letters: Most letters of the Roman alphabet are asymmetrical both horizontally and vertically. But C, D and E look the same upside down, though…
Mirror Writing 2
Use the magnetic letters to create words and sentences that can also be read normally in the mirror. You can also slide the boards under the mirror - in doing…
Misty Messages
What seems to be grey fog from distance, emerges to a picture when the second matching plate is placed exactly on top of it.
Möbius Cube Loop
Twelve 50:1 worm gears in a row are enough for eternity! Because in fifty years of operation, the last gear wheel moves by one thousandth of an atom. In other…
Model Eyeball
Here we can see why we can see objects sharply both far and near and what "short-sightedness" and "long-sightedness" are all about.
Moebius Strip
Many things have two sides, but this structure definitely only has one! To prove it, the edge of the Möbius strip is travelled with a small toy locomotive and…
Moiré
Two identical perforated plates mounted one behind the other at a distance of approx. 10 cm create the impression of black point clouds. With increasing…
Momentum Machine
Have you ever wondered how figure skaters manage to turn around their own axis so quickly during a pirouette? It's pure physics, try it out! You stand on this…
Moonwalk
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Have you always wanted to know what hopping or jumping on the moon feels like? This Technorama…
Movement Blindness
If there are some stationary objects above a rotating pattern, then the brain constantly receives different information about the rotating pattern or always…
Moving Gray Areas
The grey figures have thin black and white borders. The brightness of the background can be changed with a slider and the figures appear to move. The…
Moving Objects
by Pe Lang Several hundred small rubber rings wander as if by chance from right to left and vice versa along horizontally stretched strings. With the help of…
Moving Stripes
A camera cannot capture fast movements sharply if the exposure time is too long. This effect can also be seen in our eyes: If one wants to see a fast movement,…
Multi-Color Luminglas
by Wayne Strattman By stroking the glass surface, one can determine the choreography of the chaotically twitching plasma cascades oneself and make the confused…
Musical Cloudburst
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Many people only believe it when they have taken a shower and heard it for themselves. If you stand…
Neon Sinfonie
by Bernd Weinmayer What is remarkable about this goblet with its extremely long, slender stem is the "pattern effect" in the plasma, i.e. the neon light fan…
Newton Rings
Where only a plain glass plate is visible under normal light, a bizarre landscape of concentric light and dark rings, similar to the altitude curve rings…
Non-round Wheels
And they do roll! To make a square, a pentagon or any other shape roll, you only have to create a suitable rolling track. It turns out that for polygons a wavy…
Nothing but air
With a dark field illumination (schlieren optics), the smallest changes in air density (refractive index) are made visible. The apparatus is so large that the…
Obstinate Swing
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. These swings, which are linked by a crossbar, can set each other in motion. However, the energy you…
Oscylinderscope (Wave Watch)
by Norman Tuck A flip-book for vibrating strings: A black drum with white horizontal lines is set in rotation and the strings stretched in front of it are…
Parallel Mirrors
If you look between the pair of parallel mirrors, you see repeating images stretching from left to right. With perfect retro-reflection, this would go on…
Pass and become
Skin beetles and their larvae feed on dead animals. They ensure that carcasses are rapidly decomposed and nutrients are recycled. The entire recycling process…
Pedal generator
The pedal generator can make you sweat quite a bit just to boil a sip of water. How much (pedal) power do you think it takes to run a radio, television or…
Pegboard Pendulum
An aluminium rod can be inserted into the Plexiglas wall at various places. This turns the long thread pendulum into a short thread pendulum while swinging…
Pendulum Cradle (Click-Clack)
Impulsive people often do not know that for natural scientists, momentum has a numerical value and is measured in metre kilograms per second. The momentum of a…
Pendulum Wave
The fact that how often a clock ticks depends on the length of the pendulum can be heard at the latest when the hasty cuckoo clock hangs next to the leisurely…
Pendulums of Varying Weights
The two pendulums only differ in the height of a recess where you can put a weight. Without a weight, both pendulums swing the same. What changes if you put a…
Penrose Parquet
With only two different figures (arrow and kite), the section of an infinite aperiodic parquet can be laid.
Pepper’s Ghost
This is one of the oldest special effects, 100 years older than Star Wars and Spiderman. A large piece of glass tilted towards the viewer visually combines a…
Phased Pendulum
Set a pendulum swinging? Nothing simpler than that, you might think! Not quite so, if you are not allowed to touch the pendulum. The pendulum is only to be…
Pi
The mysterious number Pi - to 20,000 places after the decimal point in the form of a number spiral on a poster.
Pin Screen
200,000 needles hung in a perforated board animate every barefoot fakir to stroke. But don't worry about aches and pains, the needle tips are blunt! The…
Pinhole Magnifier
A magnifying glass without glass consisting of a small hole? It actually works! With this magnifying glass, it is possible even for people who wear glasses to…
Pins in a magnetic field
Inside a transparent sphere is a very strong magnet. Iron pins can be held or placed outside the sphere. These align themselves with the magnetic field and…
Plantoid
This tree - the plantoid - can glow in a wide variety of colours. A block programming language can be used to program any colour gradients for the glowing…
Plasma columns
A red glowing plasma is generated in two glass columns by an electric field. If you touch the column, you change the electric field. This attracts the red…
Plasma Top
by Ed Kirshner A large glowing glass platter is the rotary track for a double-ended glass top. Watch while the demonstrator gently rolls the heavy glass top…
Plato’s Playground
by Don Doak A reflection of the reflection of the reflection... - makes a kaleidoscope! The three mirrors in this tube are arranged in such a way that a…
Polytakis
by Caspar Schwabe Created by Zurich mathematician/artist Caspar Schwabe, Polytakis is designed to provoke kaleidoscope aficionados and quizzical visitors…
Population Growth
The current population figures in the individual continents and in total are displayed on a world map. The constantly moving counters always show the absolute…
Pseudoscope
What if we did not look at the world with an eye distance of 6cm on average, but with an eye distance of 36cm? And what if we simultaneously fed the…
Pulfrich Phenomena
Looking through the optics at the pendulum, it appears to swing in an elliptical path that changes direction when the grey filter is moved in front of the…
Pulfrich Phenomenon
A simple trick with an amazing effect! If you hold a dark filter in front of ONE eye and look at a swinging object, it suddenly appears to move in a circular…
Push Over
Are you standing firm? A stationary board with vertical stripes will throw you completely off balance if it is moved even slightly! Because not only the inner…
Pythagoras’ Theorem - Easy to weigh up!
Hypotenuse squares and cathetus squares, since they are made of identical material, can be weighed against each other. This proof can be carried out with all…
Pythagoras’ Theorem - flows from this
The Pythagorean theorem describes a transformation of areas. In a right-angled triangle, the sum of the squares over the two smaller sides is equal to the…
Quasi-Crystals
Geometric shapes also play a major role on an atomic scale. Crystals form according to mathematical rules. But what can only be studied there with the help of…
Radar Reflector
When light strikes a rough surface it is reflected all over the place. Now polish that surface to cut out all the diffuse radiation, and you get a mirror off…
RadiMax (MaxiWheel)
For the physics enthusiast, this "infinity gyroscope" may be a delightful interplay of moment of inertia, angular momentum and precession. For all other…
Rainbow Smileys
by Paul Friedlander Nothing special at first glance: A whole tree of different rotating black/white patterns are illuminated by a seemingly white lamp. But the…
Real-Virtual, Virtual-Real
by Piero Fogatiati A small object is hung on a thread in the bulbous glass vessel, which is illuminated from below. But miraculously, two objects suddenly…
Red Explorers
by Peter Bissig The observers direct their gaze at various points in the park to what is easily overlooked or simply interesting. Find out what they are…
Refracting Telescope
This amazingly simple instrument revolutionised astronomers' view of our universe! Essentially, the Kepler telescope consists of a powerful converging lens…
Refraction up to Total Internal Reflection
Resonant Pendulum
Vibrate a steel block weighing 260kg suspended from a rope with a small refrigerator magnet? Impossible! It is possible if you pull on the refrigerator magnet…
Resonant Rings
It is not only remarkable that every single one of this series of 6 spring steel rings of different sizes reacts to specific excitation frequencies. The…
Resonant Rods
Zwei (unterschiedlich) lange Metallstäbe sind vertikal auf einem wackelndem Tisch angebracht. Bei bestimmten Frequenzen überträgt sich die Schwingungsenergie…
Reversed Perspective
This "art gallery" is a man-high three-dimensional spatial sculpture that virtually turns the room upside down and shows things in the reverse or upside-down…
Rhombo Puzzle
by Guebeli A rhombic dodecahedron can be assembled from 12 building blocks (2 connected "parallel flax"/palallelepipeds each). By the way, these shapes also…
Rift Zone
by Ned Kahn A thin layer of sand lies over a membrane filled with air, in which there are small holes. Volcano-like sand eruptions occur above the holes and…
Rising or Falling
With eyes closed, stand on a platform and lean on the staff. The platform lowers slightly while the staff becomes longer, or vice versa. Our brain interprets…
Rocking Roller - the Oloid
A special shape is the oloid - it has only one surface and is the only known shape that unwinds completely when unrolled.
Rockspinner
by Zachary Coffin This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Strong as Obelix! Moving a block of granite weighing tons - child's play thanks to…
Rodeo Gyroscope
Why not sit down with a gyro? After all, it is solidly mounted on tiltable bearings, and a Plexiglas bonnet protects you from the motor-driven flywheel. But…
Rope Squirter
A large rope loop closed to form a ring runs between two pulleys, chased upwards by the electric motor, in a vertical plane. Gently disturbing it by hand, it…
Rotating Chair with Bicycle Wheel Gyroscope
Did you know that when cycling at a certain speed, you have to pull the handlebars to the right to initiate a left-hand bend? Only then does the wheel tilt…
Rotating Chair with electric double Gyroscope
A flywheel with two rotating discs can be driven at one station - either both discs rotate at high speed in the same direction or in opposite directions. If…
Rotating magnets
One magnet is set into rapid rotation. If you now approach a second magnet to the rotating one, the second one starts to rotate as well. At a certain distance,…
Rotating Mirrors
No mysteries with the flat 180° mirror: rotate it and your image stays straight in front of you. The two mirrors joined at a 90° corner give you the…
Rotating Pendulum
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. An impulse triggered with the handwheel travels up and down the rotating wheel as a wave movement. Try…
Rotating Tunnel
It turns and swings...This exhibit is about a conflict between two senses, the sense of balance and the sense of sight. Most people can't turn around once in…
S-bend Mirror
Lying and standing. Some fairground mirrors make you very small, others very large. Our mirrors do both! Make yourself small, tall, thick, thin and even…
Sand images
The trickling sand between glass panes tells more than an hourglass. For example, it always starts to slide at the same angle, the angle of repose, which…
Scintillating Screen & Hermann Grid
In this fascinating combination of the scintillating grid and the classic Hermann grid, amazing phenomena appear in the new pattern in addition to the…
Sculptures in stroboscopic light
by John Edmark "BLOOM Revelation and BLOOM Accordance On this exhibit you can change the frequency of the light - what's the effect?
Seesaw pump
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Using leverage and teamwork, you can move the hose here with your body weight so that water is pumped…
Separated Fingers
Seeing and moving the symmetrically deformed fingers in this particular arrangement creates a strange sensation where the fingers seem to be transformed into…
Settling Column
by Ned Kahn In a rotating glass tube that is mainly filled with water, the sand that it also contains always follows gravity - it settles at the bottom of the…
Shadow Casting Panel
by Drzach&Suchy Shadows are more than the absence of light - they are information. On this "shadow cast plate", the image information of two different images…
Shadow Cloud
by Drzach&Suchy Where there is light, there is also shadow - and some secrets are revealed through shadows! A large, strange-looking sphere is illuminated by a…
Shadow Fence
by Drzach&Suchy These shade fences only work when the sun is shining. The fences are metal sheets with holes and panels sticking out from the sides. When you…
Shadow Pendulum
by Drzach&Suchy Sometimes only shadows make things visible - and brought into the light, they become invisible! A large clock pendulum swings from one side to…
Shake Hands with Yourself
The concave mirror is shiny black: a red ball dangles invitingly, brightly lit. Set the ball swinging, then slowly reach to catch it. Your mirror-image hand…
Shepherd’s Sundial
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. A simple sundial that was used by shepherds centuries ago: If you know the exact date, you can read…
Shiny Metal Sphere
Here is the fish-eye effect: the centre of the image looks correct but round the edge, where light strikes the sphere’s surface at an oblique angle, it gets…
Sky Window
What!? - a hole in the landscape through which you can see the sky? It also changes its shape when you move. From the bridge it looks like a circle, but up…
Sliding Gray Step
Light and dark is not an absolute quantity in our perception, which is well illustrated by this simple example: A pane of glass with grey stripes can be moved…
Sloping Room
A walk-in and slightly furnished room looks completely normal when you enter it, but it is inclined in the longitudinal axis by about 12 degrees and in the…
Slow Blue
A red, a green and a blue light spot can be moved on a yellow surface whose brightness can be changed. The blue spot always seems to "lag behind".
Slow Bubbles
Silicone oil is more viscous than water, so short jolts from the air pump allow big bubbles to form in it nice and slowly and rise solemnly. Of course they…
Small Pin Screen
by Ward Fleming The "Pin Screen" was originally developed in 1976. It comes in different sizes. What they all have in common is that they consist of a large…
Smell Habituation
If a scent mixture is administered for smelling, which consists of a dominant and a weak scent, one only smells the dominant scent; if one then smells only the…
Soap Bubble Basin
Even big kids like to follow their play instinct here. With steel hoops of different sizes dipped in secret-receptive soap solution, soap bubbles several…
Soap Film Painting
Everyone knows soap bubbles. But here, a bar lying across in the soap solution is slowly pulled up, which stretches a 1.5m wide and up to 1m high soap film!…
Soft landing
Here you can let yourself fall backwards and rely on the braking effect of eddy current. Two strong magnets are attached to a couch, which are moved along…
Solarmobile
The elements in this mobile each contain a solar cell and an electric motor. If you point the light of a lamp at one of the solar cells, the electric motor…
Soma Cube
The 7 classic components of the soma cube can be assembled into the cube in 240 different ways.
Sonnenfänger
With the sun catcher, you can look at the sun indirectly and thus completely safely. To do this, you have to align the exhibition object with the sun and then…
Sophisticated Shadows
Light is actually invisible! At least we can't see it unless it hits our eyes directly. In this respect, a slide projection without a screen would not be…
Sorting machine
The sorting machine uses magnets to sort different coins according to their conductivity. To do this, the magnets are moved very quickly under the coins. The…
Spectra
Even less than the ear can hear individual instruments in a concert, the eye is able to assign individual colour tones in the impression of colour. A…
Spider Sundial
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Swiss Timing once with a Swiss flag: The shadow of a flagpole as a time pointer. This spider's web…
Spindrift
by Shawn Lani A flat, curved acrylic bowl ensures that the discs sent off on it do not run away, but come back again. In this way, it can be experienced that,…
Spot the Difference
When viewing an image, the image information is recorded and stored in the brain. If the image is briefly interrupted by a neutral image and then shown again,…
Square Puzzle and the Square to Triangle-Conversion
Nine square tiles of completely different sizes are to be arranged into an almost square rectangle.
Squaring the Circle
In a glass cylinder there is a strange wire-like structure. If you look through the structure from a very specific distance at a very specific height from one…
Squirming Palm
This experiment works very similarly to the waterfall effect at the same table. If you stare at a rotating dot pattern for a while and then at the palm of your…
Standing Water Disk
Still Empty
by Wayne Strattman Filling a glass with light - a truly Sisyphean task! The plasma constantly flowing from the tap is meant to show that emptiness remains.…
Street Lamps
All cats are grey at night! A colourful card (under normal light) loses all its colours under the orange monochromatic sodium vapour light. Objects can only…
Strom spüren
Here you can feel the sensation of electric current. To do this, you place two fingers on two contacts and increase the voltage with a button for as long as…
Superconductivity
Together with a Technorama employee, various experiments with superconductors can be carried out here.
Surface Tension
The surface of the water can develop amazing forces. When you slowly pull the wire ring out of the water, you can feel the surface tension of the water trying…
Suspension Bridge
Here you can experience the resonance frequency of the bridge. The resonance frequency is the natural frequency at which the structure vibrates most easily.…
Swimming with the current
Single-cell organisms swim around in a chamber under a microscope. At the push of a button, the chamber can be put under voltage. The single-celled organisms…
Swinging Drawing Board
A board suspended at four points from steel cables over 2m long somehow rocks when you bump it, but how somehow? It is very easy to find out by placing a sheet…
T-Puzzle
A "T" can be put together from four parts. The difficulty here is that the cuts are at an angle of 45° to the letter bars.
Taylor-Couette Vortices
This experiment consists of two cylinders placed inside each other. The gap of 12 mm width is filled with a liquid (calliroscope), which makes flows clearly…
Tectonic Basin
by Ned Kahn When the earth shakes, even ground that appears solid begins to flow or even "boil" - seemingly like a liquid. In this experiment, the vibrating…
Teeming world in water
A sample from the stream in Technorama Park contains different organisms. Even with the naked eye you can see it teeming in the water bowl. Looking through the…
Template Code
A jumble of letters can only be disentangled by means of the appropriate template. Conversely, it is easy to encode a message consisting of 36 letters in a way…
Terrella
by Bill Parker In the centre of a large glass sphere filled with diluted inert gas sits a small metal globe (Terrella stands, belittlingly, for terra = earth).…
Tetrahedron Puzzle I
This puzzle game is all about spatial imagination. Two bodies of the same size are to be joined together to form a tetrahedron.
Tetrahedron Puzzle II
Tetrahedron Puzzle III
This puzzle game is mainly about spatial imagination. Four (2 equal) bodies made of spheres are to be assembled to form a tetrahedron.
Th shortest Way is not always the quickest
The race of the bowling alleys: Three tracks all have the same height difference from start to finish and also the same horizontal distance, but different…
The big is in the small: crystals
by Ward Fleming You can shake the container gently to set the ceramic balls in motion. If you move it long enough and regularly, the balls will arrange…
The Circle’s the Limit!
The squaring of the circle or: If you don't want to believe that the circle is the limiting case of polygons with more and more corners, you can have green…
The Eyes help you lift
The finest difference
How fine is your dexterity? Very fine: experience how this is defined for you with this exhibit. You can feel when something sticks out by ten millimeters.…
The Kiss II
Multiplex rainbow hologram by Lloyd Cross, San Francisco, 1975 "The Kiss" by Lloyd Cross is one of the first and the most famous multiplex hologram - also…
The Odours of Things
Visitors can see a sequence of real objects one after the other and also smell them. Each object can be rated on a scale as to whether it smells pleasant or…
The separated Self
A sideways glance into this mirror makes you believe that your right hand is your left and vice versa. However, if you move only the hand that is invisible…
The Tea Leaves Experiment / Tea Cup Experiment
Coloured aluminium leaves in a cylindrical water container (approx. 10 l capacity) accumulate in the centre of the vessel after the cylinder has been briefly…
The twist with the coil
A coil is rotated in the earth's magnetic field and thereby generates current. The current generated depends on the position of the axis of rotation in…
Thermal image
The "temperature-sensitive" mirror image - A thermal imaging camera registers its heat radiation and converts this information into an image: cold areas are…
Thread Models
Here, curved surfaces are created from straight "threads". With the rotatable cylinder model, you can create a hyperboloid from a cylinder. The movable surface…
Three Balls on a String
The system behaves like a one-, two- or three-part pendulum at low, medium and high rotation speeds. Each ball follows a defined, uniform horizontal circular…
Three Chairs
A chamber stands here with three peepholes and apparently three identical wire chairs behind it. So what? Only a look sideways into the chamber reveals the…
Three-dimensional Projection
On a screen you see a red and green shadow of a tetrahedron or people moving on the opposite side of the screen. They are illuminated there by a red and green…
Tit for tat
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. When it stands still, this "water carousel" actually looks quite normal. However, when the carousel is…
Top chair
by Thomas Heatherwick. This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months.
Total Internal Reflection
Trapped light - A laser beam with a variable angle shines into a plexiglass rod. If the laser beam hits a side surface, it is completely reflected and emitted…
Touch the Spring!
Through an opening you can see a feather in a large box. If you want to touch this feather, however, you reach into the void. - The feather is reflected on a…
Touching the Knife (or not)
Ouch! A Swiss army knife seems to float freely in space. But you can't cut yourself on it, because you are reaching into the void. A concave mirror creates a…
Towers of Hanoi
Five discs are stacked from large to small on one of the three poles. The task is to move the discs to another bar while observing the rules: move only one…
Trapezoidal Window
A window drawn in perspective, which thus takes on a trapezoidal shape, rotates around its own axis on a nylon thread. If you look at the rotating window from…
Travelling Chain
by Norman Tuck A fleeting, playful strip of the circulating bicycle chain - and it already performs amazing twists or gentle, artistically elegant undulations.
Triad - metal, stone, wood
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. It is amazing what sound is produced by striking the stone slabs, the metal pipes and the wooden…
Tricky Curves
A blue or a green path is to be followed with special prism glasses, where either left and right are swapped or up and down. Not an easy task, especially as…
Tricky target well
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Here you have to hit a target in the water with a water jet. To do this, you have to use your combined…
Triple-period pendulum
The situation: Three thread pendulums of different lengths with identical flywheel mass. In addition, different weights are available for attachment to the…
Turning Shadow
A shadow of a rotating cube is viewed on a ground glass screen using Pulfrich glasses. These are glasses with one eye opening open and the other with a grey…
Turntable
A table with a recessed spinning disc allows for a variety of gimmicks. Staggering spinning tops, standing spinning balls or even more difficult billiards. Who…
Two Wheels and a Ball
If two parallel discs rotate at exactly the same velocity, it is easily guessed how a ball located in the middle of the connection between two edge points…
Underwater Sandstorm
If you go into the sea on the shallow sandy beach, you will see an underwater dune landscape formed by the tides. A plexiglass sphere full of water and a…
Unwanted Light Reflections
Photographers know the problem! Disturbing light reflections often appear on panes of glass or on water. However, you can make the light reflections disappear…
Vertical Mobiles (Chaotic Pendulums)
by Daniel Richard Randomness is completely excluded in a simple pendulum, its behaviour can be described exactly on the basis of its length and deflection.…
Vibrating Pin Screen
by Ward Fleming Almost a quarter of a million swinging pendulums! Nails of different lengths suspended in a perforated board are set in vibration by a…
Vibrating String
One end of the string is attached to a small spring steel plate that swings back and forth 100 times per second. The other end of the string is held in place…
Vibrational patterns
A bowl of water, set in vibration, illuminated and projected, shows how liquids, when they vibrate, change in leaps and bounds into wondrously decorative…
Visible Effects of the Invisible
That sound waves are periodic compressions and rarefactions of the air, whizzing along at 1200 km/h (Mach 1), has been heard before, but one would like to see…
Vomit, Grass and Candyfloss
Five smelling containers, each containing a pleasant or unpleasant scent, are connected by tubes to a central smelling container. The scent molecules from the…
Vortex Action in Bottles
A race to (not of) two bottles! Who can empty their PET bottle faster? The fastest way to empty a bottle is not simply to turn it upside down. The exhibit…
Vortice Cylinder
The agitator inside the cylinder, driven by a hand crank, makes the water first turn slowly, then faster. The water rises up the walls and forms a whirlpool…
Warmfront
Visualisation of cloud formation on a warm front. If air masses with different temperatures meet, they are not simply mixed. Obviously, different layers form.…
Watch Water Freeze / Ice Flowers
Water is a special substance - and an aesthetic one at that. We can see this especially in the growth of ice flowers, when liquid water begins to crystallise…
Water Bell
With a flick of the wrist, you can regulate the amount of water that flows from below against the flat disc. Directed outwards through this disc, the water…
Water film
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Is that really water that clings like a skin around the silver mushroom body, and even on the slanted…
Water Music
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Here you can become musicians and compose your own personal water music! Find out for yourself how the…
Water Parabola
Parabolas are the visualised result of mathematical functions. Not only! One finds parabolas in many natural phenomena. For example, the higher the rotation,…
Water Vortex
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. This bowl is filled through four nozzles and has a drainage hole slightly to the side. Thus, the water…
Waterfall Effect (Rotating Spirals)
When this disc is rotated, the spiral patterns seem to turn both in and out. An amazing effect occurs when, after watching these illusory movements for some…
Wave Machine
Hier wird "Holz anfassen" beim Wort genommen. Nicht zum Anschauen, sondern zum Schalten und Walten, zum Hebeln und Kurbeln, zum Treten und Klappern hat Pierre…
Waves in springs (Big Slinky)
A slight impulse on the 12-metre-long spring shaft and a longitudinal wave propagates like a stone throw into the calm water surface to bounce up at the end…
Weird Wheels
Disc-shaped bodies that have the same diameter at all points are called "equal dicks". If you put a plate on the out-of-round wheel pairs and drive with it,…
Welcome to Sector K… ?
An apparently meaningless word that appears to be made up of jumbled letters suddenly makes sense when the lower half of the word is covered. The upper halves…
What is Polarization?
Polarisation is the direction of oscillation of the electric field of an electromagnetic wave.
Wheel of Life
Does our brain function like a film camera? Here, similar to a flipbook, an endless film is running, only the main actors are just a few points of light.…
White Plasma Plume
by Wayne Strattman One of the most aesthetically pleasing realisations among a whole series of works in which the fourth aggregate state of matter becomes the…
Why is the Sky blue?
Why on earth is the sky blue and not black as night? After all, we are looking directly into the almost black universe. A slide projector shining through a…
Wide of the Mark
By throwing a ball through a target several times, we become so practiced in the throwing process through our visual and tactile stimuli that after some time…
Wild water wheel
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Depending on the speed of rotation of the water drum, you can transport different amounts of water up…
Wind Machine
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. A gentle breeze, a stiff wind or even a storm - you hear it all the time, but have you ever…
Windy Pictures II
"Showing the wildness of the air." It's less about the phenomenon and more about your mood. A fan blows on you in a closed inflatable room. This situation is…
Wire Mesh Sculpture
by Michael Rudnick A very ordinary fluorescent tube has remained without what makes it so: the coating with luminescent material. Thus, through the clear…
Wobbly Bridge I Arch Bridge / Wobbly Bridge II Suspension Bridge
An arch bridge made of wooden bricks can be loaded with a weight stone at different points. Since the bricks are held together with rubber bands, the resulting…
Wolf, Goat and Cabbage
A tricky task: The three objects are to be brought across the river by the ferryman, whereby there is only room for one at a time on the ferry. Neither cabbage…
Wooden machine A
Wooden machine B
Wooden machine C
Wooden machine D
Wooden machine E
Wooden machine F
Wooden machine G
Wooden machine H
Wooden machine I
Wooden machine L
Wooden machine M
Wooden machine N
Wooden machine O
Wooden machine P
Wooden machine Q
Wooden machine R
Wooden machine S
Wooden machine T
You & Me
With a semi-transparent mirror, the faces of two people sitting opposite each other can be completely or partially merged, depending on the lighting.
You and I
When two people climb the ladders and look around in the room above, it is seemingly completely without shapes and contours, and the lighting is obscured. One…
Your Birthday in Pi
With a probability of over 99%, you can find your own birthday or any other birthday at these computer stations as a six-digit number combination in the first…
Your Father's Nose...
Share your face with someone else! Between the mirror strips you can look at the other person's face so that you can alternately "see" your own eyes, a foreign…
Zoom Mirror
by Christian Megert This mirror is flexible. It changes its shape from convex to concave and vice versa. Seen from a distance, your mirror image is upright and…
«Poppier»
by Patrick Hughes At first glance, the painting "Poppier" by seems like a completely normal painting. But when you walk along the painting, it seems to develop…
Accessibile for people with cognitive disability
Accessible for people in wheelchair
Accessible for people with visual disability
Little fine motor skills required