A Slice of Turbulence
by Ned Kahn If the crest of the wave collapsed over the surfer off Hawaii and he could bring home a slice of salami from it, he would have the original to the…
Adhesive Air
Coandă Effect: How shape, position, and surface influence airflow. The Coandă effect occurs when fluid or gas jets deviate from their original flow direction…
Aeolian Landscape
«Aeolian Landscapes» Wind shapes the landscape, just like water and ice do. As the wind sweeps over the sand surface, dune-like ripples form. When their…
Air Bubbles
Like dolphins: forming rings that rise. By pumping air into the glass tube filled with water, air bubbles rise. They ascend vertically. Often in a straight…
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…
Air Fountain
Dance with scarves. They rise and fall. Colorful scarves, moved by the airflow as if by an invisible hand. Choreography: visitors on the platform. by Daniel…
Air lift
The vacuum makes the difference. When the ball moves up the tube, the airflow is directed in such a way that a vacuum is created. How must it be directed for…
Ascending magma
«Intrusion» Volcano in cross-section: This is what happens beneath its vent. What looks like magma is actually air-blown glass particles. They behave like a…
Ball in a Bowl
Particle accelerator. Hula hoop meets spinning coins: balls orbit inside the sphere. Circular movements propel the two balls onto their orbits within the…
Shorter path = faster to the goal? A question that occupied the best mathematicians three hundred years ago. This competition compares two parallel tracks,…
Ball on water-beam
Drawn to the jet. Table tennis balls float on a water fountain: how is that possible? The ball doesn’t stay exactly in the center of the jet. It rotates…
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…
Bernoulli’s Elephant
by Paul Spooner 2016, Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, England What is a pink elephant doing at Technorama? The Bernoulli Elephant is a work by the artist Paul…
Bicycle Wheel Gyroscope
Speed and Balance. Not so easy: Riding a bike slowly while maintaining balance. Much easier: Pedaling fast and staying steady. But why? Quickly spinning…
Big Bounce
Oops – something’s taking off! A truly impulsive experiment: balls that bounce much higher than their starting point! The three differently sized balls move…
Blind Juggler
The Blind Juggler can juggle up to four balls at the same time without any sensors.
Bouncing (Steel) Ball
Ping-ping, not ping-pong. When a ping-pong ball drops onto the table, its sound is unmistakable. A tapping noise that grows quicker and quicker. This happens…
Boyo
Reaching High. Pull the rope with the handle firmly downward – immediately, the flywheel pulls the rope and handle back up. It works like a yo-yo, but in…
Bridge the Gap
Building bridges is not so easy - especially when you are not allowed to use nails, screws or glue! Here you only have nine identical wooden blocks at your…
Cartesian Diver
Sinks / Doesn’t Sink Sometimes called a “Cartesian diver,” this hollow body is partially filled with water and air. Depending on the pressure in the liquid,…
Catenary Arch
Building solid – like the Romans. An arch as a delicate structure: reconstructing what the Romans perfected. Understanding what gives their elegant arches…
Chaotic fountain
«Chaotic (or Turbulent) Fountain» Direction of rotation: impossible to predict. The twelve containers of this fountain wheel are all the same size. They are…
Chaotic Pendulum
Momentum and Joint A long, light pendulum connected to a small but heavy pendulum. A push on the knob sets the entire system in motion. The effect on the…
Chaotic Pendulum II
Momentum and Reversal Three smaller pendulums attached to a large rotating arm. A push on the knob sets the entire system in motion. The effect on the three…
Chembongo
A stone with a mind of its own. This giant “Celtic rocking stone” (Chembongo) behaves peculiarly: when nudged, it starts to rotate. Turned the wrong way, it…
Circling Wave Umbrella
«Circling Wave Umbrella» The fabric hangs limply from the pole. When set in rotation, it ripples, much like women's skirts during a folk dance. A small hole…
Cloud Chamber
Particle Zoo: Ever seen a muon? Electrically charged particles are not directly visible, even in the diffusion cloud chamber. However, alpha and beta…
Cloud Rings
A cloud maker like no other! The large basin is filled with water mist. Pressing the lid with a hole causes a mist column to rise in the center – up to seven…
Confused Sea
Master of the Winds. Play the god of winds – Aeolus would be thrilled. The half-sphere of plexiglass is filled with water. The strength of the rotating fan…
Convection cells
«Convection Cells» Warm air rises, as does warm liquid. This forces air and moisture to descend in other areas. The structures that form resemble cauliflower…
Coriolis Fountain
Water with a surprising twist. If we spin around while holding the garden hose, the water jet seems to "bend." The jet follows the hose. The jet follows the…
Counter-Balanced Pendulum
This is how a pendulum swings on the Moon. We cannot change Earth’s gravity. But we can simulate a change in gravitational force by adjusting a movable weight…
Coupled pendulums
Transferring energy. Two identical pendulums, connected by a helical spring. When one pendulum is set in motion, its energy transfers. Soon, the previously…
Coupled Rotary Pendulums
Twisted oscillation. Two horizontally stacked rods with weights are connected by a steel strip. If one rod is displaced, it begins to oscillate. Soon, it…
Crushing Mill
Rolling in rotation. Three brass wheels rotate in a circle, like on a carousel. As they spin around their shared vertical axis, they are pulled toward the…
Dancing Stones
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Hard to believe until you try it yourself. You can turn this eight-ton stone stele under your own…
Dancing Water Drop
Leidenfrost Phenomenon. The water droplet lasts surprisingly long when it falls onto a scorching hot plate. It zips across the 280-degree surface, carried by…
David versus Goliath
Who is stronger? Push the plunger down. Which of you feels like Goliath and which feels like David? The air pressure is the same in both cylinders. Their…
Distant receiver
Big Ear. If the listening horn is well aligned, birds can be heard chirping even from far away. The large dish collects and focuses sound waves, amplifying…
Double Gyroscope
Spin = angular momentum or torque. The angular momentum of a top moves – whether spun forward or backward – in the direction of the axis of rotation. How does…
Drawing on the Move
Elegant circles, spirals, and ellipses. Above a disc with variable rotational speed lies a ruler. If the pen is held still along the ruler, circles are drawn.…
Echo Pipe
Hello?! Shouting, calling, whistling, clapping – this tube answers. The returned sound is quite different from the original noise. How long does it take for…
Equal Times
Meeting – in the middle. On this track, a tautochrone, the time it takes for a ball to reach the lowest point is always the same. If we release two balls,…
Fading Motion
The curve loses momentum. Sand flows from the pendulum onto a moving green belt. The sand writes curve after curve. Their radius becomes tighter and tighter.…
Falling Water
Splash! From the cube of the Wonder Bridge, five tons of water plunge into the void. Part of the water is propelled through a halfpipe, soaring well beyond…
Floating Tap
And where does the water come from? As if by magic, the faucet floats in mid-air. Water flows continuously, without stopping. A miracle, no doubt. But can it…
Floating Top
Magic without tricks. With the help of a Technorama employee, a magnetic spinning top is set in motion. The spinning top can then be made to hover above a…
Fog wind tunnel
Streamlines become clearly visible. This is how flowing air behaves: when it encounters a shape, it hugs its surface and gets deflected. The wind tunnel…
Fork balance
You can not only eat with a fork, but they are also easy to balance....
Fountain of Instability
Spitting Snake. Water sprays out in the middle of the pond. The hose moves in a snake-like motion. The end of the hose sways slowly, almost like a pendulum.…
Full body involvement
Perceive quickly and react immediately with coordinated, skillful movements. Developed as a piece of sports equipment, “Full Body Involvement” promotes…
Get the wrong end of the stick?
Levers in Action. Can one person lift three others? On this seesaw, the lever works in your favor. Even if the others are much heavier, the seat plate « on…
Gravitational model or Energy Well
The potential well. Orbiting the gravitational center: once launched, the ball takes wide rounds. For minutes, it gradually accelerates. Its circles become…
Gyroscope in a Suitcase
A stubborn companion. Quite heavy, this suitcase. And somehow, it seems to resist the journey. It bucks, pulls to the other side. It swerves, tips upward, as…
Harmonograph
Each drawing is a unique masterpiece. With precision and stability, this arm guides the pen across the paper. Held by magnets on a slowly rotating holder, the…
Hovering between extremes
Experience the electrostatic force. Can the polystyrene ball float between the upper and lower hemispheres? No, but it can jump back and forth between…
Icy Bodies
Comet Rain Dry ice doesn’t melt when it warms up. It turns directly into a gas, and very quickly too. This gas shoots out of the small fragments involved…
Infalling Cloud
«Infalling Cloud» Resembling galactic spiral nebulae, whirling wisps endlessly plunge into the funnel. The water vapor, denser than the surrounding air, is…
Internal Waves
Wave Backwards Tilt the container – the heavier blue liquid flows downward. When it hits the container wall, it bounces back, creating a wave moving…
Inverted Double Pendulum
Balancing with two rods. Balancing one rod on a fingertip: that’s something we can imagine doing. But with two rods connected by a joint, the task becomes…
Inverted Foucault Pendulum
From this point of view … North Pole, Winterthur, Equator: The inclination of the tube containing a thin oscillating rod can be adjusted. Additionally, the…
Jumping Water
Fascinating Water Arches. Is solid water flying through the air? Beautiful: sometimes, continuous arches form, almost like tent poles, but made of water.…
Jupiter Pendulum
Moon: sluggish. Jupiter: frantic. The stronger the gravity, the faster pendulums swing. Their oscillation period does not depend on their mass but on the…
Kalliroscope©
Magic and Beauty of Flowing Motion A vortex generator or rather a spectator par excellence. It allows for enchanting, seemingly chaotic, yet somehow regular…
Klankkaatser
Hello world? Shaped like a light bulb, resembling a spacecraft capsule: welcome to the Klankkaatser! Is anyone there? The sound waves don’t drift into space;…
Landfall
Funnels and Valleys The sand in this large glass sphere flows through holes in the bottom, creating breaks in the sand’s surface that resemble alpine…
Large drain vortex
Plug removed: This is how the bathtub empties. A water vortex is usually seen – if at all – from above. Like the one in the bathtub drain. Here, the water…
Liquid Dynamics
Chaotic eddies, turbulent swirls – and calm zones. Turbulences become visible. In the flow tank, they appear in the water. Very similar to what happens in a…
Lissajous Double Spring
Vibration as a still image. Lissajous figures are the intertwined curves, like those shown by the LED at the end of the spring. Small works of art created by…
Lissajous Rods
Harmonic oscillation patterns. The six metal rods are shaped to oscillate at different speeds depending on the direction. A metal rod with a width-to-depth…
Lissajous Sounds
What sounds good also looks good. Two small mirrors oscillate at the same frequency as their respective speakers. The frequency of one mirror (and its…
Loose Stone Bridge
Brilliantly strong and simple. Loose stones, assembled in the correct order, form a bridge capable of bearing weight. Even in a small format, it can support…
Lying Water Disk
Water shapes sculptures. When two water jets collide, the water is deflected sideways. A water membrane forms, creating a disc. The pressure in the two pipes…
Machine with Concrete / Machine set in Stone
The Eternity Machine. Twelve worm gear mechanisms for eternity! An impressive example of mathematics illustrated mechanically. With each successive gear, the…
Magdeburg hemispheres
Air out! Hemispheres become inseparable. Through vacuum pressure, two hemispheres joined into one cannot be separated anymore. The experiment of the mayor of…
Magic Ring
This ring never settles down… When we spin a coin, it quickly lies down on its side. This ring, however, spins much longer. Once set in motion, it refuses to…
Magic Wave
A mechanical work of art: A rhythmic rise and fall of metal segments, reminiscent of traveling waves. With a remarkable setup, the artist induces phenomenal…
Magic Wave Model
Magical wave in the stairwell – principle clearly explained. A rotating arm, cords, guide points, and straight metal segments create a wave-like motion that…
Magnetic balance
Floating through diamagnetism. Underneath a large ring magnet is a transparent box with a small magnetic cube and a base made of graphite. At exactly the…
Magnetic repulsion
North pole against north pole. A slight change in the distance between two magnets has a major effect on the force between them. The closer they come, the…
Marble track wall
Various tubes, wooden boards, cardboard strips, etc. can be attached to the large perforated walls with long wooden dowels. This creates very individual marble…
Maxwell’s Wheel
A giant yo-yo. Pretty big and quite heavy, this flywheel. As it spins, the textile band wraps around its hub. The band shortens and pulls the wheel…
Meanderings
Meanders on glass. The glass plate is slightly tilted. Thin streams of water flow over it. What paths does the water take? The fastest path is a straight…
Momentum Machine
Pirouette – an elegant trick. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and then breathtakingly fast again – and all these variations in a fluid movement. How do…
Moonwalk
Reduced Gravity. What does it feel like to jump on the Moon? Try it here! A small effort is enough for a big leap. Here, gravity is reduced to one-sixth,…
Moving Objects
Rings, rings, rings in a row. Hundreds of small rubber rings move along horizontally stretched strings. Seemingly at random, from right to left – and back…
Musical Cloudburst
Dry Shower. What’s hitting the umbrella? It’s music! The intensity of the water jet determines the note. The umbrella acts as a loudspeaker. ❄️ Technorama…
Obstinate Swing
Let it swing. One person sits still, while one or two others start swinging. Soon, the seated person begins to oscillate as well. These swings, connected by…
Oscylinderscope (Wave Watch)
Flipbook for vibrating strings. Turn the black drum with white cross stripes and pluck the strings: their vibrations appear as waves, in a magical way. The…
Pegboard Pendulum
Carrying momentum. With a rod fixed in the wall, the long pendulum becomes a short one, starting from the point where the long pendulum wraps around the…
Pendulum Cradle (Click-Clack)
Pendulum like Newton. One ball hits the row – one ball bounces away. Two balls hit the row: how many will bounce away now? Here’s a clue: The momentum of an…
Pendulum Wave
Chaos in perfect alignment. Eleven pendulums of different lengths. Once released, they swing in disarray. And yet, every ten seconds, they return to perfect…
Pendulums of Varying Weights
Experiment like Galileo. Does a heavy pendulum swing faster than a light one? An exciting comparison! With a weight in its center, a pendulum certainly…
Phased Pendulum
Up and down becomes back and forth! Set the pendulum swinging without touching it. Just pull the rope, please. This way, the pendulum is indirectly set in…
Propulsion paths
Gear wheels of different sizes can be put together and several wheels can be connected with rubber bands. Can you make the whole construction work from start…
RadiMax (MaxiWheel)
Infinity Top. Moment of inertia, angular momentum, and precession – a delightful interplay. Playing with the RadiMax requires some skill. On the wire-mesh…
Resonant Pendulum
260 kilos in motion, effortlessly. It’s quite heavy, this steel block on a rope. Yet, a small magnet is enough to set it swinging! Finesse beats force:…
Resonant Rings
Vibrations based on frequency. Six spring-steel rings oscillate in response to the speaker’s frequency. If it matches the natural frequency of a ring, the…
Resonant Rods
Wildly swinging rods… Two metal rods rise vertically from a wobbling table. They are of different lengths. The vibrational energy of the table transfers to…
Rift Zone
«Rift Zone» An air-filled membrane covered by a layer of sand. Press the button, and small sand fountains soon bubble up. The surface rises…
Rockspinner
Strong Like Obelix! This "menhir" weighs five tons – yet you can move it effortlessly. The secret? The rod is perfectly mounted inside the stone, allowing it…
Rodeo Gyroscope
Rock, rock, oh wow! Take a seat, the flywheel spins. The seat lowers – affecting the axis of this gyroscope. The gyroscope reacts to this change. It tilts…
Rope Squirter
Indian Rope Trick? The loop stands firm. Guided through two rollers, the rope is driven upward by an electric motor. Surprisingly stable, the loop holds in…
Rotating Chair with Bicycle Wheel Gyroscope
Turning left: pull the handlebars to the right. When initiating a left turn on the bicycle, we pull the handlebars slightly to the right. At a certain speed,…
Rotating Chair with electric double Gyroscope
Disk in motion. Chair with spin. The station drives the two disks of the double gyroscope. If both rotate in the same direction, the rotating chair…
Rotating magnets
Hovering through rotation. One magnet is set into rapid rotation. If you now approach a second magnet to the rotating one, the second one starts to rotate as…
Rotating Pendulum
Standing Wave. An impulse triggered by the handwheel travels as a wave motion up the rotating wheel and back down. By periodically moving the wheel back and…
Sand images
Sliding, floating, flowing So beautiful, so fascinating: The sand, moving here between glass plates, tells a story far beyond that of an hourglass. When it…
Settling Column
«Settling Column» Sand follows gravity. The same happens in this rotating glass tube. Mostly filled with water, the sand settles at the bottom. How can the…
Slow Bubbles
«Slow Bubbles» Beautiful, how the bubbles rise slowly. In the thicker silicone oil, they have significant buoyancy but also more friction than in water. This…
Soap Bubble Basin
Loooong bubbles For kids big and small: form soap bubbles several meters long. Sometimes, a bubble stretches into a tube large enough for a child to fit…
Spindrift
Rolling, spinning, wobbling, tilting. In the flat, slightly curved bowl, the discs don’t simply roll away – they always come back. How long do they spin…
Standing Water Disk
Collision of two water jets When two water jets collide, the water is deflected sideways. A thin water membrane, resembling a disk, forms. Surface tension…
Surface Tension
Clear and tangible. Astonishingly strong, the forces acting on the surface of the water. Slowly pull a metal ring out of the water: you can see how the…
Suspension Bridge
Vibration Patterns. Experience resonance frequency: Walking across the suspension bridge sets it into oscillation. Depending on your movement, these…
Swinging Drawing Board
Just let it draw. The drawing board swings, deliberately. Suspended by four cords, a single push is enough to create a work of art. Drawn as if by magic. The…
Switch-over Pendulum
Mathematical and Physical Pendulums. Here, you can switch between the two pendulums: If the disk at the center of the pendulum rod can rotate freely, it does…
Taylor-Couette Vortices
Taylor-Couette Flow Two nested cylinders: The gap between them is filled with a liquid (kalliroscope) that makes flows visible. The inner cylinder can…
Tectonic Basin
«Tectonic Basin» When the earth shakes, solid ground begins to flow or even «boil» as if it were liquid. Here, the garnet-red sand particles vibrate and move…
Th shortest Way is not always the quickest
Marble race. Three tracks with the same height difference and the same horizontal distance, but different curves: the straight path is the shortest,…
The big is in the small: crystals
Amazing Order Shake it, please. When the balls come to rest, they arrange themselves into regular patterns. These patterns can be compacted, almost to…
The Tea Leaves Experiment / Tea Cup Experiment
«Everyday Physics» Experiment like Albert Einstein. In a paper about river meander formation, he wrote: «I begin with a small experiment that anyone can…
Three Balls on a String
Motion patterns with momentum. Three balls on a string: what pendulum motions occur at low, medium, and high rotation speeds? Depending on the rotation…
Tit for tat
Coriolis Effect. The water jets on this carousel are aimed toward the center. Once set in motion, they change direction. The Coriolis effect becomes visible…
Travelling Chain
«Travelling Chain» A fleeting, playful touch of the moving bicycle chain – and it performs surprising twists or gentle, artistically elegant wave motions. by…
Triple-period pendulum
A tricky challenge. Situation: Three pendulums with strings of different lengths but identical swinging masses. Various weights are available to attach to the…
Turbulent Orb
Currents and their Shapes Ever spun a globe? Turned by a hand crank, it creates horizontal bands. What happens when the movement slows down? Chaotic, stormy…
Turntable
Rolling in place. Balls and rings on a table. On top, a rotating disc – with countless ways to play. Rings wobble, fast-rolling billiard balls stay in…
Two Wheels and a Ball
Opposing Circular Motions. In the middle: a ball. On its sides: two wheels. How does the ball move when both discs spin at the same speed? And how does it…
Underwater Avalanche
«Underwater Avalanche» The "sand" in this round, water-filled vessel consists of tiny glass beads. Depending on the tilt of the disc, the flow patterns vary…
Underwater Sandstorm
Underwater dunes At the seaside, in the shallow sandy shore, you can observe an underwater dune landscape sculpted by the tides. In the plexiglass sphere…
Vertical Mobiles (Chaotic Pendulums)
Chaotic pendulums. Length and amplitude: the behavior of a simple pendulum can be precisely described. No randomness involved. Add another pendulum, then one…
Vibrating Pin Screen
Pulsating images. Almost a quarter-million swinging pendulums! Nails of varying lengths, suspended in a perforated board and set in motion. The oscillation…
Vibrating String
Nodes, loops, nodes, loops. The spring steel plate at the end of the string oscillates a hundred times per second. Lateral movements depend on how strongly we…
Vortex Action in Bottles
Race: Empty the Bottle A simple task: Who can empty their PET bottle faster? Turn the bottle – the rest happens on its own. But it can go even faster. How?…
Vortice Cylinder
Whirlpool in a Glass of Water Turn vigorously, please. Driven by the hand crank, the water in the cylinder starts spinning slowly, then faster and…
Watch Water Freeze / Ice Flowers
Watch Water Freeze Crystals form on the cold surface, like frost flowers on windows, a sight we see less often thanks to better insulation. Here, you can see…
Water Bell
Like an elastic skin. Water flows upward against a flat surface. Diverted outward, it forms a bell shape. The shape of this bell depends on the pressure of…
Water film
Clinging Water. A daily phenomenon displayed in its most beautiful form: why doesn’t the water simply drip off the silver mushroom? Molecular interactions…
Water games
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. Pump like the world champions: Here, water can be pumped in the most diverse ways. A big playground…
Water Music
Jam session "Splash Sounds". Experiment with water, improvise with surfaces and pipes, conduct an entire water orchestra: these compositions bear your…
Water Parabola
Parabola in a natural phenomenon. As the rotational speed of this container increases, the water surface inside curves. The faster it rotates, the steeper the…
Water Vortex
Spiral wave motion. The vortex resembles the one in a bathtub as water drains. However, the wave that forms within it is less familiar – making the image even…
Wave Patterns
Waves on the surface of a thin layer of water become clearly visible with a suitable projection. A vibrating beam produces waves with straight-line crests.…
Waves in springs (Big Slinky)
Transverse wave, longitudinal wave, standing wave. A light push forward, and the twelve-meter-long spring wave moves. At its end, it bounces back and returns.…
What is Polarization?
Light and oscillations. Normal, unpolarized light is a mixture of light waves with different oscillation directions. When all light waves have the same…
Whisper Route
Amplifying Sound. Clearly understandable, even from forty meters away, what your conversation partner is saying. Receiving/Listening: One of the satellite…
Wild water wheel
Clinging Molecules. Depending on the speed of rotation, the drum carries different amounts of water up along its wall. The turbulent water wheel demonstrates…
Wind Veil
by Ned Kahn This façade is a real eye-catcher: it makes the movement of the air around us visible in an impressive way. Thousands of small aluminium plates are…
Zen-Brunnen
This exhibit is not accessible during the winter months. What does the water pumped up from the last two pumps of the water feature do? It combines to drive a…
Condiment Diver
To paraphrase French philosopher René Descartes: "I sink, therefore I am." Changes in fluid pressure affect the buoyancy of a Cartesian diver made from a…
Coupled Resonant Pendulums
Take advantage of resonance. By taking advantage of resonance, you can cause two pendulums to swing in identical cycles.
Inverted Bottles
Watch the rise and fall of hot and cold fluids. Investigate convection by using food coloring and water at different temperatures.
Coriolis Carousel
And yet it moves! Astonishing phenomena are revealed when one earth day only lasts four seconds.
Small building blocks, big effects: Design your chain reaction
A small impulse can change the world. The flap of a butterfly's wings that triggers a hurricane on the other side of the world, or the cry of a mountain…
Acoustics
Aggregate states
Algorithms
Animals, plants, habitats
Atomic and quantum physics
Atomic structure
Automats
Biology
Buoyancy
Chaos
Characteristics of life
Chemical Reactions
Chemistry
Colors
Computer science
Cryptology
Currents
Data and information
Design elements
Earth sciences
Electricity
Electricity and energy
Electricity and magnetism
Elektromagnetismus
