Our Institutional Review Board has asked that the videos be shown in non-public spaces, which we call “educational settings.” Such settings have an educational ...

Experience the Exploratorium. Let your curiosity roam free through hundreds of exhibits in our six spacious indoor and outdoor galleries at Pier 15, San Francisco.

Build a paper-pencil-pin phonograph. In this classic activity, make a record player out of simple materials and listen to your favorite vinyl LP—no outlet required. Starting in one corner, roll the ...

Dark-colored materials both absorb and emit energy more readily than light-colored materials. Using a card or strip made of temperature-sensitive liquid crystal material, you can monitor temperature ...

Create your own personal sound system with a coat hanger and string. Create your own personal sound system with a coat hanger and a string, producing musical sounds that only you can hear Cut two ...

Polarizing sunglasses cut road glare better in some positions than in others. When light reflects from water, asphalt, or other nonmetallic surfaces, it becomes polarized—that is, the reflected light ...

Make a simple mini-motor. A coil of wire becomes an electromagnet when current passes through it. The electromagnet interacts with a permanent magnet, causing the coil to spin. Voilà! You’ve created ...

Gelatin can do much more than just wiggle and jiggle. Gelatin can be used for much more than a sweet treat. It can also act as a smoked lens—which allows you to view total internal reflection—or as a ...

A rotating black-and-white disk produces the illusion of color. Rotate this black-and-white pattern at the right speed, and the pattern appears to contain colored rings. You see color because ...

Make waves without getting wet. With just a Slinky and your hands, model transverse wave resonances as well as longitudinal wave resonances. Learn about nodes and antinodes of motion and compression.

The distribution of the mass of an object determines the position of its center of gravity, its angular momentum, and your ability to balance it. Place a lump of clay about the size of your fist ...

Make a truth teller for light. Turn an old CD into a spectroscope to analyze light—you may be surprised by what you see. Try pointing your CD spectroscope at the fluorescent light in your room, sunlit ...