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Light
A Way of Seeing as It Happens
A mirror and a lens mounted on top project a live image of the outside view into a darkened room.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
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.
Aurora
A reflector stretches light from colored tiles into long bright ribbons.
Bird in a Cage
Stare at a bird’s eye for 30 seconds, then look into the empty cage. You’ll see a ghostly bird—of a very different color—inside the cage
Bright Black
At this exhibit, find out how subjective brightness can be as you struggle—and fail—to correctly decide whether the squares you see are black or white.
Christmas Tree Balls
There are captivating reflections in a box of ornaments.
Colored Shadows
Step in front of this wall, and you’ll make shadows of various colors—yellow, magenta, cyan, red, green, blue, and yes, even black—that wiggle, jump, and dance along with you.
Corner Reflector
This reflector has you cornered: It always sends light back in the direction from which it came.
Countless Colors
How many colors can you make by mixing red, green, and blue light?
Cylindrical Mirror
This curved mirror distorts your reflection in surprising ways.
Diffraction Shadows
Shadows made with laser light have light and dark bands.
Disagreeing About Color
Which of the outer dots best matches the center dot? Ask a few people and chances are you’ll get a few different answers.
Disappearing Glass Rods
When light passes from one clear medium into another, it (usually) bends—a phenomenon called refraction. Distortions caused by refraction are part of why you can see objects that are clear.
Distilled Light
Split light apart and put it back together again.
Drip Chamber
Liquid glycerin drips down, creating unique shapes and shadow patterns.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Everyone Is You and Me
By adjusting the light levels on either side of this half-silvered glass, you and a friend can merge your faces into a single composite face.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Fluorescent Tube
Powder inside a fluorescent tube makes invisible light visible.
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.
Giant Lens
See wonderfully warped views of the world through this colossal convex lens.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Giant Mirror
This giant mirror was originally part of a flight simulator. Its size and near-perfect smoothness makes for astonishing optical (and acoustic) effects.
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.
Hoop Nightmares
Your brain adapts quickly to a warped view of the world, turning baskets into air balls.
Hot Spot
This curved mirror focuses both light and heat.
Illuminated Fog
Swirling, drifting, billowing movements of air reveal themselves in the fog.
Image Relay
Lenses transmit an image of your face across space.
Inverse Square Law
Light gets dimmer the farther it travels–and a bit of simple math explains how.
Life in a Drop of Water
Light projected through a drop of salt water reveals an abundance of life.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Look Into Infinity
Reflections bounce back and forth into infinity.
Magic Wand
Wave the wand quickly and see an image appear.
Microscope Imaging Station
Research-grade microscopes reveal interior worlds of living, changing cells.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Mirrorly a Window
Confusing sensory information can be profoundly disturbing.
Monochromatic Room
Things look oddly colorless in this room because they’re lit by light of only one color—a sodium vapor lamp of the type often used for streetlights.
Newton's Prism
Prisms separate white light into colors, then recombine these colors back into white light.
Pixel Table
Create myriad colored shadows with mirrored tubes.
Rickshaw Obscura
Step into this mobile camera obscura and never see the light the same way again. A small lens in the ceiling captures the scene around the visitor and projects a ghostly dreamlike movie on the table below.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
Rotating Faces
Some of these mirrors make your head spin, some don't. Can you find the pattern?
Seeing and Listening Explainer Station
Explainers do light and sound demonstrations.
Self-Centered Mirror
It’s all you, and only you, in this mirror.
Self-Excluding Mirror
In this mirror, you’re nowhere to be seen.
Shadow Box
A bright flash of light illuminates a phosphorescent wall—imprinting temporary shadows that capture a moment in time.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Soap Film Painting
Soap film hits the big time at this exhibit, featuring a giant square soap bubble the size of a picture window. The cascading colors you see here arise from overlapping light waves that reflect from the front and back surfaces of the soap film—a phenomenon called interference.
Sophisticated Shadows
If you think shadows are a straightforward business, prepare for a surprise—actually, a whole bunch of surprises. Combining various light sources in various ways, you’ll quickly discover that there’s nothing simple about a simple shadow.
Spectral Meadow
Watch the patterns change as the Earth turns and the Sun moves across the sky.
Sun Painting
Created by artist Bob Miller, this classic Exploratorium exhibit is a “live” painting that uses light from the Sun as its palette.
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