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Crossroads: Getting Started
Awaken your curiosity with open-ended exploration.
Easy-to-engage perception, time, and motion exhibits allow for open-ended exploration and introduce visitors to phenomena that can be explored throughout the museum.
A Drop to Drink
Getting a drink of water would be very different if you were the size of a doll.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
A Sip of Conflict
Would you, could you, will you drink from a water fountain fashioned from an actual—but unused—toilet? Porcelain is just porcelain . . . right?
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Bicycle Wheel Gyro
Tilt a spinning bicycle wheel while you’re sitting in a swivel chair and—surprise—you’ll start spinning in circles, too. You can also witness the same phenomenon here by hanging a spinning wheel from its axle.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Café Wall Illusion
These tiles aren't really crooked–they just look that way.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Chaotic Pendulum
The visitor gives an initial twist to the pendulums with a protruding knob. Intuition says that the resulting motion of this system should be, if not simple, at least predictable. Intuition, however, does not work with this device since its motion is chaotic, extremely complicated and long-lived.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Color Your Judgment
Your expectations may change your experience.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Coupled Pendulums
Start one of these two pendulums swinging and soon you’ll see the other pendulum start swinging, too. Keep watching and you’ll see the two pendulums take turns, alternately swinging energetically and coming to a near standstill.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Disappearing Act
An animal that blends in with its environment is much easier to see when it's moving than when it's still.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Downhill Race
Believe it or not, when objects roll downhill, it’s not their weight or size that determines their speed—it’s how their weight is distributed.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
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