Today we celebrated my 40th birthday with a family trip to Technopolis, a mekka for science-minded kids in the Belgian town of Mechelen. (Technically, my real birthday is in two days from now, but I have messed with the arrow of time a little, to speed things up).The entrance to the museum is adorned with a red lever that anyone can use to lift up a car!Simon and Neva lifting up the carThe beautiful marble run and math and physics demo in oneGalton’s board and Gaussian distribution
Simon explaining the general relativity demo, which is part of the marble runThis was probably the winner among all the exhibits: a wall to climb with a mission (Simon figured it out rather quickly – one had to turn “mirrors” to change the direction of light (green projection) and have the light rays extinguish the targets.Simon tried to explain this to other children, but they only seemed to want to climb. It was sad to see how no one cared to listen (well, except for Neva of course).Simon was already familiar with this optical illusion. Later he saw another version of this on an Antwerp facade. The logic gates were too easy.the center of gravityHuge catenaroids! Something Simon had already demonstrated to us at home, but now in XXL!cofAnd huge vortices! Another passion.Hydrodynamic levitation! Hydrodynamic levitation!Look! A standing wave!
And another standing wave!
Here Simon explains one more effect he has played with at home, the Magnus effect.
Geeks out of the box 