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Perception
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: Crossroads: Getting Started
Adapting to Color
Change your perception of color by flooding your eyes with colored light.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Aeolian Harp
An eerie orchestral chord floats on the breeze; it’s the shimmering sound of a 27-foot tall harp being strummed by the wind.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
All Eyes on Me
Situate yourself at just the right place in space in front of this parabolic mirror array and you’ll see dozens of your own eyeballs peering back at you.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Ames Chairs
What we see can depend on what we expect to see.
Animation Tower
Quick-changing views create the illusion of motion.
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.
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."
Big Chair, Little Chair
Each of the chairs in this series has dimensions that are twice that of the smaller chair. But doubling the dimension of a chair doesn’t double its strength.
Big Tuning Fork
Distinct tones combine in the hum of this tuning fork.
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
Black Sand
At this simple but ever-popular exhibit, black sand from nearby beaches make spiky patterns that reveal the invisible magnetic field between the poles of two giant magnets.
Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium
Blood Cells in Your Eye
Gaze into the eyepiece at the blue light, looking for bright specks moving in short bursts against the background, and feeling your pulse as you watch them.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
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.
Bronze Hand
The combination of past experience and the sight and feel of being touched seems to change your brain's definition of your body's boundaries. You may even feel as if the fake hand is part of you.
Café Wall Illusion
These tiles aren't really crooked–they just look that way.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Change Blindness
Something changes each time this picture blinks . . . but you probably won't see it.
Cheshire Cat
Make your partner's face disappear, leaving only a smile.
Color Conflicts
When can reading get in the way of speaking?
Color Your Judgment
Your expectations may change your experience.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Colored Circles
Overlapping pools of red, blue, and green create a Venn diagram of additive color.
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?
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 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
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.
Distorted Room
From one view, this room looks like a normal room, but people and things inside may seem quite strange.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
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.
Floater Theater
Floater Theater is an intimate theatrical environment that whimsically prompts participants to explore the fascinating, commonly experienced phenomenon of eye floaters.
Focused Conversation
This giant balloon bends sound waves just as a lens bends light.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
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.
Humming Plates
Sand reveals vibrations that are normally invisible.
Image Relay
Lenses transmit an image of your face across space.
Jacques Cousteau in Seashells
There’s more to seeing than meets the eye.
Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium
Kaleidoscope
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Look Into Infinity
Reflections bounce back and forth into infinity.
Magic Wand
Wave the wand quickly and see an image appear.
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.
Mood Lighting
Sit down in a cozy chair and bathe your brain in a bubble of color of your choosing, dialing up anything from amber to violet. As you spend a few moments with each color, you may feel a shift in your own emotional hue.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Perspective Drawing Window
Tracing on the glass produces precise perspective.
Pitch Slider
The length of this vibrating rod affects the sound it makes.
Pixel Table
Create myriad colored shadows with mirrored tubes.
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