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Hands-on activities, online exhibits, articles, videos, and more, all about the material world.

Cardboard Automata

Cardboard Automata are a playful way to explore simple machine elements such as cams, levers, and linkages, while creating a mechanical sculpture.

Strange Attractor

The attraction and repulsion of magnets produces entrancing, unpredictable motion.

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Bottle Blast-Off

Make a simple rocket and a rocket launcher, and watch a demonstration of how the finished rocket will fly.

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Magnetic Pendulums

Copper coils become electromagnetic swings.

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Bubbularium

Make an observatory to see the amazing colors in bubbles!

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Color Chromatography

Discover the secret colors hidden in black ink. With a paper towel, a black marker, and a cup of water, create a rainbow of colors while exploring capillary action and chromatography.

Crystal Creations

Grow spikes of crystals in the sun.

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Bubble Bomb

Using baking soda and vinegar, you can pop a plastic bag with the power of fizz.

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Cold Metal

"Cold" metal and "warm" wood may be the same temperature.

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Electrical Fleas

Start your own electric flea circus!

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Wind Tubes

Wind tubes are a playful and inventive way to explore the effect that moving air has on objects.

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Gas Model

Caged molecules do their thing.

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Dipping Bird

The dipping bird seems to go forever but it's not perpetual motion!

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Balancing Stick

Try to balance a stick on the tip of your finger. Does it matter which end is up?

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Resonant Rings

Find out one reason that buildings aren't equal in an earthquake.

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Give and Take

Dark-colored materials both absorb and emit energy more readily than light-colored materials.

HANDS-ON

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Geometry Playground

Geometry Playground will change the way you think about geometry. This exhibition engages your hands, brain, and body in playful investigations of this most visible branch of math.

Exploring Paper

Learn about origami, make your own paper, and find out the best way to fold a paper airplane.

Origins

Explore the places, people, tools, and ideas behind the origins of matter, the universe, and life itself.

The Heart of the Matter: Inside CERN

Visit the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, which studies what the universe is made of and how the universe works.

Structures Around the World

Learn about scale and structure with eight great activities designed for the elementary classroom from our book The Exploratorium Guide to Scale and Structure. Available in English, French and Italian!

How to Build a Spectroscope

Using a spectroscope, you may see that what appears to be a single color of light is really a combination of colors called a spectrum.

Chain Reaction

Watch an archived webcast to see complex mechanisms slide, roll, burn, pour, push, pull, bump, and grind in an amazing chain reaction.

Bubbles

Everything you ever wanted to know about bubbles, but were afraid to ask.

Science Explorer

Get messy with ExploraGoo and Outrageous Ooze! Get airborne with the Fabulous Foam Flyer! Get loud with the Water Gong or Straw Oboe!

Beyond Einstein: World Wide Webcast

In celebration of Albert Einstein's work in 1905, science laboratories and museum around the world (including the Exploratorium) participated in a twelve-hour webcast that explored Einstein's influence on current physics research.

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