Distorted Room (Ames Room)

Little one grows tall.

An absolutely ordinary room, at least when viewed through the peephole. But wait, the little brother grows taller than the big sister here!

Slanted floor, tilted back wall, crooked windows: with one eye, our ability to perceive depth is limited. As a result, we don’t notice how distorted the room’s geometry really is. However, we perceive the size of the people we see through the peephole relative to the space.

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11477 00 Verzogener Raum DEFI

00 Verzogener Raum (11477)

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Biology

Design elements

Human body

Mathematics

Points, lines, shapes, space

Seeing

Senses

Technology and design

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11374 Haupt

"Delta Phi"

Optical phenomenon: caustics. The surface of this object resembles that of moving water. Illuminated from above, it reflects incoming light rays in various…

11798 Detail II

3D-Shadows

Shadows gain depth. Illuminated with red and green light, a tetrahedron casts a red and a green shadow on the screen. Viewed through glasses with red and…

11976 Phänomen

847 Compass needles

Magnetic Domains. There are 847 compass needles attached to a disc. Because they are so close together, they influence each other. With a magnet, the compass…

10228 Haupt

A riddle for intelligent and patient people

Puzzles for the sharp-minded and patient. Trickier than it seems: these eleven puzzles with strings, boards, and rings are challenging. One of them cannot be…

11727 Detail

A sense of optimism

Salt crayfish follow the light and thus their food. By pressing a button on the exhibit, the viewer changes colours between two light sources, whereupon the…

10442 Haupt

A Table with loose Legs

Three, two, one – stable. How many supports do we need to stabilize a tabletop? Without screws, without glue, of course. Sharp-minded (and experimental)…

10006 Detail

Additive Color Mixing

Mixing light colors. Play with red, green, and blue light, and with their brightness. When overlapped and adjusted optimally, red, green, and blue produce…

10297 Haupt

After Image

Seeing the void. A powerful flash of light triggers a photochemical process on our retina. This process lasts longer than the brief light flash that…

11634 Haupt

Air cushion

Inventive talent is called for here! Use scissors and tape to build objects out of paper that float on the wide air cushion. While testing and optimising, you…

11747 Detail

Alike and unalike

The illusion of inequality. Two identical wooden arcs lie side by side. The inner one appears larger, but it isn’t. For circular arcs, the outer edge is…

10012 Haupt

All Triangels are the same

Central projection: Using various triangular shapes to cast congruent shadows onto a patterned wall with equilateral triangles.

11762 Detail

Ambiguous Figures

Clearly ambiguous. One object, two forms: “Necker cubes” belong to the category of ambiguously perceivable objects. Perceiving spatial dimensions and depth:…

10398 Detail

Angled Mirrors

Many polygons. Two mirrors positioned around an axis at various angles: a simple way to create shapes with many sides (polygons). At certain angles,…

11940 Haupt

Ants

Observe the bustling activity of ants as they move through a large enclosure performing various tasks. This is made of transparent material so that visitors…

10030 Haupt

Aurora

A different kind of reflection. Colored filters in a mirror: why don’t we simply see their exact image? The surface of the mirror is rough. Restless,…

Bakterien als Künstler Damen

Bakterien als Künstler - Damen

Creative Microorganisms A narrow aquarium is filled with sediment from an old pond. In its various layers and under different aerobic and anaerobic…

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Bakterien als Künstler - Herren

Creative Microorganisms A narrow aquarium is filled with sediment from an old pond. In its various layers and under different aerobic and anaerobic…

10240 Haupt

Ball in a Bowl

Shorter path = faster to the goal? A question that occupied the best mathematicians three hundred years ago. This competition compares two parallel tracks,…

11364 1

Ball sorting machine

Playful tidying up. Yellow. Red. Blue. This machine sorts the small, medium, and large balls among Pierre Andrès' “Machines Singulières” in a playful manner.…

10037 Haupt

Banana

If you place a blue filter exactly on the yellow banana, the banana appears green - logical, isn't it? A larger blue filter that also covers the white…

10034 Haupt

Beam Bridge

The simplest form, but not the most stable. This bridge demonstrates the forces acting on a straight beam when it is loaded and supported only at its two…

10301 Haupt

Benham's Disc

Benham’s disks: seeing colors where there are none. The disks display patterns with black and white shapes. When these disks rotate, we perceive colors. When…

10046 Detail

Blind Spot

Wasn’t there an orange? Stare at the apple with one eye and slowly bring it closer to your face. At a certain distance, the orange beside the apple seems to…

10049 Detail

Blood Vessels of the Eye

Recognizing what we normally never see. In front of (not behind) the retina of our eye, there is a network of blood vessels. We don’t see it. Our brain…