The Exploratorium, located in San Francisco, is a world-renowned, playful learning laboratory of provocative exhibits and experiences that ignite curiosity and transform the way people learn.
Confused Sea exhibit
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu
New exhibit Sun Swarm, located outside Pier 15, helps show how light reflects off the Bay. #10daystilopening
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu
Waterworks preview party postcard shoot, 1979, photo by Susan Schwartzenberg
Men fishing from North Pier, sitting along a breakwater at the mouth of the Chicago River, 1915. Photograph by Chicago Daily News.
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This is great
Snowy Bits
Melting snow and ice on a car windshield at Lake Tahoe. #noticing
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper
So beautiful.
And a good excuse to listen to Grizzly Bear perform “Deep Blue Sea.”
(via 1afterimage2)
Watch Water Freeze, An Exhibit by Charles Sowers
Ice Balloon
Salt sprinkled on a ball of ice etches intricate channels in the frozen sphere.
Photo by Lily Rodriguez
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper
Watch Water Freeze
Spiky ice crystals seen through polarized light shine with rainbow colors at the Exploratorium exhibit Watch Water Freeze.
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper
Icy Bodies
At the Exploratorium exhibit Icy Bodies, thin shavings of dry ice, warmed by the water they are floating in, emit cold jets of carbon dioxide gas. As the jets of gas shoot out, they spin the dry ice in a spiral pattern. As water vapor in the nearby air condenses into clouds, the pattern is revealed.
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper
Making Waves, photo by Susan Schwartzenberg, 1980’s
Ice Balloons
Ice balloons tinted with food coloring create a lesson in water phenomena for teachers at the Exploratorium. To see Exploratorium physicist Paul Doherty discuss ice balloons and other chilly phenomena, check out Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists.
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper
Watermelon
You may know that one way to judge the ripeness of a watermelon is by its heft relative to its size—heavier watermelon are riper—but did you know that you can move watermelon with a magnet? Watermelon pulp is about 92 percent water, and water is diamagnetic, or repelled by magnetic poles. The next time you have a bit of watermelon on hand, you can try it for yourself with this activity.
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper
Floating Paper Clips
Surface tension (and careful placement) allows these paper clips to rest on top of the water instead of sinking. Surface tension occurs because water molecules are attracted to one another in directions, which makes them cling to one another. However, water molecules at the surface are clinging only to molecules next to and below them. The strength of this adhesion creates a surface that can support small objects of greater density, such as paper clips. Surface tension is what allows water to form droplets or to rise above the top edge of a glass without spilling. Learn more about floating paper clips and surface tension at www.exo.net/~jillj activities/surfacetension.pdf and www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/bubbles/sticky_water.html.
Photo by Amy Snyder
© Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu/downloads/wallpaper
