Why do things do the things they do?

Find out at Cool Stuff, the first of Discovery Place's new exhibitions. Launch objects into the air, lie on a bed of nails, or crush a garbage can. It's an eccentric world of physical phenomena and it's all in your hands.

Cool Stuff will offer families the opportunity to discover the beauty and strangeness of physics; look at the world in new ways; become aware of new scientific concepts and find out what’s cool about science.

Every member of the family will be inspired and engaged by the collection of multi-dimensional exhibits that uncover the extraordinary wonders of science, nature, math, technology and more. Encouraged to get physical with physics, guests can unlock an amazing and alluring set of physical reactions and explore physics in a tangible way at the newest hands-on exhibit.

Cool Stuff is highlighted by three, main areas:

Lift:
“What goes up, must come down” is a fundamental but fun principle of physics. Activities in this area focus on the physics of lifting - making things go up and the challenge of keeping them up against the inevitable force of gravity. Guests can launch objects by utilizing electromagnetic forces or by the explosive force of a chemical reaction and experience “full body lift” with an all-new, vacuum-powered chairlift and more…

Look/Move:
Focusing on the strange and beautiful feats of physics that involve motion, light and heat, the exhibits featured in this section illuminate bizarre aspects of the physical world. Using some basic tools of science – observation and manipulation – visitors will experience a zone of weird happenings that delight the mind and senses. Visitors can explore the invisible light that the human body radiates all day long or bend light around a corner using fiber optics and more…

Push:
How do forces make objects move and how can we use pushing and pulling to our advantage? Museum-goers will explore concepts of mechanical advantage, energy transfer and air pressure in these exhibits. Mechanical advantage will allow visitors to perform amazing feats of strength such as crushing a garbage can or winning a seemingly impossible tug-of-war match. The power of wind also will be used to run activities tied to utility, sport and just plain fun and more

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