Masks and vaccinations are recommended. Plan your visit
Anti-Gravity Mirror
Here’s an exhibit where watching is at least half the fun. You can create any number of gravity-defying illusions that will amaze you and your friends: Levitate, fly, swim though the air, grow limbs (and dissolve them), crawl straight up the wall like a lizard—the sky’s the limit.
Benham's Disk
When the disk is spun, the colors you see are illusions. This effect was popularized in 1894 by toymaker C. E. Benham, who called his spinning disk an “artificial spectrum top."
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: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium
Christmas Tree Balls
There are captivating reflections in a box of ornaments.
Flourish (Bloom)
This 3-D sculpture is animated when spun under a strobe light. The bloom’s animation effect is achieved by progressive rotations of the golden ratio, phi (ϕ), the same ratio that nature employs to generate the spiral patterns we see in pinecones and sunflowers.
Geometron
In conjunction with the Exploratorium’s Geometry Playground exhibition, Edmark created a polyhedral kaleidoscope, the result of rigorous mathematical precision and much collaboration. The kaleidoscope incorporates a live video feed within its mirrors to inspire and facilitate direct interaction and geometric exploration.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Gray Step
With the rope hanging down, the left and right sides of the board appear identical. Lifting the rope shows the dramatic difference that your eyes missed—and continue to miss, as soon as you let the rope fall again.
Image Relay
Lenses transmit an image of your face across space.
Look Into Infinity
Reflections bounce back and forth into infinity.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
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