Sound

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

Archimedes

Parabolic dishes collect and focus sound waves and reflect them to participants seated within them.

Where: Plaza

Catch the Sound Waves

These simple glass tubes separate the sounds of the Exploratorium into distinct tones.

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Sand scattered on a large metal square vibrates and jumps in response to the sound of your voice. When you hit just the right note(s), the sand spontaneously migrates into elegant geometrical patterns.

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Echo Tube

Make a sound into the echo tube and listen for it to reflect back from the far end. You’ll hear a half-second delay, and strange distortions created by the journey.

Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits

Echo Tubes

Experiment with echoes with these three long tubes. Why does a clap come back as a ping? What does it take to make a good echo?

Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.

Focused Conversation

This giant balloon bends sound waves just as a lens bends light.

Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.

Humming Plates

Sand reveals vibrations that are normally invisible.

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Listening Vessels

Enormous parabolic sculptures transmit a conversation—or even a whisper—from one person to another across a great distance.

Where: Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Oscylinderscope

A piece consisting of a cylinder and guitar strings, that when plucked, demonstrate how strings behave when they vibrate to produce sound. Both the tension and the length of a string effect the frequency of vibration (pitch of the sound). Shorter or tighter strings vibrate faster to make higher tones and vice a versa, while the horizontal distance between the peaks and valleys of each wave reflects the loudness of the sound.

Where: Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon