This toy uses components of force to walk and to stop at just the right time!

A bob, or mass, hangs from a string attached to the front of the walking men. Watch as the string almost draws the vectors that make the toy work.

Walking toy (these are called [...]

A face seen upside down may hold some surprises.

Your brain gets used to seeing familiar things in certain ways. When the brain receives a strange view of a familiar object, the consequences can be intriguing. In the Exploratorium exhibit titled “Vanna,” two pictures of the face of TV personality Vanna White seem identical when [...]

You can see the spring, but you can’t touch it.

In the Exploratorium’s Touch the Spring exhibit, a spring is placed in front of a concave mirror. The actual spring is not visible to the viewer, but the viewer can see the mirror image of the spring formed in space. When you try to touch [...]

Calculate the weight of a car by using air pressure

By measuring the amount of surface each tire presses onto the ground and the pressure inside each tire, you can calculate the weight of a car.
(This activity is not in metric since most common tire pressure gauges are in PSI or [...]

Using two eyes gives you depth perception.

Closing one eye eliminates one of the clues that your brain uses to judge depth. Trying to perform a simple task with one eye closed demonstrates how much you rely on your depth perception

A dowel or pencil
A washer [...]