Mike Raiford wrote:

> My statement was more of a commentary of the vapid nature of our local 
> "science" museum. All they had was a Tesla coil powered light show (you 
> know, a larger version of the plasma ball) as a demonstration of 
> "lightning" and a few optical illusions. Oh, yeah, and a playground for 
> the kids.
> 
> I want a *real* science museum, dammit. Like the one I went to as a kid. 
>  Had several electrical things, science demonstrations involving many 
> facets of physics. Lots of interaction with sound waves, light, heat and 
> electricity. It made science interesting! Oh, yes, and as a centerpiece 
> it had the aforementioned pendulum. And plaques that explained what was 
> happening.
> 
> The one we went to that was nearby was dull and hollow. They were 
> setting up some "science of sports" exhibit, but the main exhibits were 
> a few things about meteorology (you see, I'm in the southernmost part of 
> Tornado Alley) which included a few yawn inducing demonstrations (I 
> can't even remember what they were but they didn't really do much, oh, 
> yeah one that showed that heat rises, and a few pictures of storm 
> damage), and a artificial tornado. The rest of the main room was nothing 
> but optical illusions. Then it was some farm exhibit, for the kiddies, 
> and a playground. That was IT.

Science is seriously interesting stuff. However, making it *look* 
interesting is quite hard.

The easiest way to do this is to splash something complicated and 
technical-looking over it. For example, my sister's A-level physics 
textbook had a large Mandelbrot set on the cover. Unfortunately, that 
has almost *nothing* to do with the contents of the book! This is the 
general problem with this approach.

The London Science Museum has a giant steam winding engine. It has a 
24-foot flywheel that weighs multiple tonnes, and trust me, when this 
whole crazy Victorian contraption starts moving, it looks *very* 
impressive. Doesn't teach you *squat*, but it's pretty amazing to watch!

I used to like watching TV programs like Local Heroes and Rough Science. 
(I say "used to" since these are no longer produced, sadly.) Rough 
Science in particular was great in that it depicted people making all 
sorts of improbable devices out of old junk.

It was also quite amusing that the physist always wanted coils of wire:

"A heater? OK, we'll need a coil of wire..."
"A radio? OK, we'll need a coil of wire..."
"A speaker? OK, we'll need a coil of wire..."
"A thermometer? OK, we'll need two coils of wire..."
"A generator? OK, we'll need a coil of wire..."
"A washing machine? OK, we'll need a coil of wire..."

OK, most of those are pretty self-explanatory. But a thermometer? Who'd 
have thought of making *that* out of a coil of wire?

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