Science Centre Trip
ACE
I went to the Science Centre today for my field trip. At the Science Centre, I discovered a lot of new scientific wonders and was amazed by the improvements the Science Centre had made since I last went there, about two years back. Some galleries were also added to explore different areas of Science. Below are a some highlights.
At the gallery “The Mind’s Eye”, I saw many optical illusions. The first one I saw was the Disappearing Candy hologram, which looked real and floating but could not be touched. It was actually just an image resting below two concave mirrors. The Moiré Patterns were quite a sight as two identical repetitive patterns were misaligned. In certain areas, black lines on the front screen hid the clear lines on the rear screen, thus it created a dark patch. It has also got an opposite effect. These effects magnified the differences between two repetitive patterns. Then the mirrored balls, an illusion we see in our daily lives, was fun to play with. Every time I pointed at one ball, all the other balls reflected an image of me pointing at that ball. It is an effect caused by the spherical symmetry of curved surfaces.
Then, I caught a Tesla Coil demonstration at the Atrium. The personnel there were demonstrating the strength of the 3.5 million volts of electricity produced by the Tesla Coil, and many arcs of lightning were flying off. It was very loud and exciting, when hydrogen balloons went into flames after being electrocuted by the Tesla Coil. To make the show better, the pinwheel was changed from one to two discharge points and fluorescent lights held up by the volunteers lighted up when the coil was powered. It proved that wireless transmission of energy is possible. The climax came when a man volunteered to go inside a Faraday’s Cage, fully made of metal, and the cage got zapped with the coil. It taught me that in an emergency lightning alert, I could get inside a metal frame big enough to hold me for protection, but should not touch the frame itself.
I went to the Science Centre today for my field trip. At the Science Centre, I discovered a lot of new scientific wonders and was amazed by the improvements the Science Centre had made since I last went there, about two years back. Some galleries were also added to explore different areas of Science. Below are a some highlights.
At the gallery “The Mind’s Eye”, I saw many optical illusions. The first one I saw was the Disappearing Candy hologram, which looked real and floating but could not be touched. It was actually just an image resting below two concave mirrors. The Moiré Patterns were quite a sight as two identical repetitive patterns were misaligned. In certain areas, black lines on the front screen hid the clear lines on the rear screen, thus it created a dark patch. It has also got an opposite effect. These effects magnified the differences between two repetitive patterns. Then the mirrored balls, an illusion we see in our daily lives, was fun to play with. Every time I pointed at one ball, all the other balls reflected an image of me pointing at that ball. It is an effect caused by the spherical symmetry of curved surfaces.
Then, I caught a Tesla Coil demonstration at the Atrium. The personnel there were demonstrating the strength of the 3.5 million volts of electricity produced by the Tesla Coil, and many arcs of lightning were flying off. It was very loud and exciting, when hydrogen balloons went into flames after being electrocuted by the Tesla Coil. To make the show better, the pinwheel was changed from one to two discharge points and fluorescent lights held up by the volunteers lighted up when the coil was powered. It proved that wireless transmission of energy is possible. The climax came when a man volunteered to go inside a Faraday’s Cage, fully made of metal, and the cage got zapped with the coil. It taught me that in an emergency lightning alert, I could get inside a metal frame big enough to hold me for protection, but should not touch the frame itself.
When I reached the Mathematics gallery, I saw a lot of exhibitions and found out a lot about numbers. I discovered that the Fibonacci numbers sequence (e.g. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12…) is encoded in flower petals, sunflower, pine cones and even pineapples! The Chaotic Pendulum was interesting, because as I pushed and turned the knob through a large angle, two pendulums swung at the end of each other. The motion was non- repeatable and unpredictable. The Mobius Ring was next. As I slid my finger along the surface, after a complete turn, my finger had already moved around the whole surface of the 3-dimensional wooden block! It is an exciting extension of the Mobius Strip.
I moved on to the “Sound” gallery, where I saw and heard many auditory illusions. One was Odd Orbs, where two orbs were shown colliding with each other. With sound, I saw the circles bouncing off each other. Without sound, however, they crossed each other. There was an exhibition of the Doppler Effect in a big cage. When the arm of the cage was spun, centripetal force generated by the circular motion triggered a buzzer. The nearer I went to the cage, the higher the pitch was and vice versa. A good example would be a police car’s siren.
After that, I saw a few exhibitions relating to Biology. There were respiratory system and atomic models, a simulation on bioethics etc. There was a hot and cold bar I touched with both hands, and learnt that body temperature can drop/rise in just about 30 seconds in normal circumstances. I was introduced to new facts like Alexander Fleming being the discoverer of penicillin, a ‘miracle’ cure that could fight many deadly bacterial diseases.
After that, I saw a few exhibitions relating to Biology. There were respiratory system and atomic models, a simulation on bioethics etc. There was a hot and cold bar I touched with both hands, and learnt that body temperature can drop/rise in just about 30 seconds in normal circumstances. I was introduced to new facts like Alexander Fleming being the discoverer of penicillin, a ‘miracle’ cure that could fight many deadly bacterial diseases.
At the “Marine Alcove”, I saw small coral reefs, a moray eel and learnt how a swim bladder inflates when a fish needs to swim.
To end off the day, I went to watch a video on the history of flight. I learnt, through the cartoon, that humans have wanted to fly like birds for a very long time. It was the dream that inspired us to build aeroplanes and gliders. After the Wright brothers successfully built a machine for flying, the competition heated up to see which aeroplanes could fly the fastest, longest etc. We were not satisfied with simply travelling around the globe, but explored the far reaches of space.
The Science Centre trip has been a very enriching experience for me, as I viewed so many exhibitions and gained a deeper insight on the vast subject of science.
The Science Centre trip has been a very enriching experience for me, as I viewed so many exhibitions and gained a deeper insight on the vast subject of science.