Aristotle and his friends make gravitation interactive
About twenty playful experiences intended for all audiences invite you to rediscover the fall of bodies.
Some of the experiments on offer at the Museum of the History of Science as part of the “By the force of things” exhibition.
DR
All six of them were able to find the words and the formulas to signify the fall of the bodies. In the form of small friendly pictograms, Aristotle and his friends Galileo, Newton, Huygens, Foucault and Einstein welcome visitors to the grand staircase leading to the first floor of the Museum of the History of Science.
Within the Villa Bartholoni, in the heart of the Perle du Lac park, the prestigious sextet marks “By the force of things”, a new interactive exhibition devoted to the force of gravity. Rich and complex, the theme comes in the form of around twenty fun experiences intended for both experienced amateurs and visitors with family, without any particular scientific background.
The poster for the new exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science.
DR
“The basic question is why do objects fall?” summarizes Laurence-Isaline Stahl Gretsch, curator of an exhibition that popularizes rather well phenomena that are not always easy to grasp. Inclined planes, pendulums, gyroscopes and other spinning tops illustrate the forces that make them fall, turn or roll. Linked with the scholars mentioned above, a series of devices invite understanding through experience.
bells are ringing
Suiting the action to the word, Laurence-Isaline Stahl Gretsch releases steel balls on a large inclined plane some three meters long. Manner of applying the laws of Galileo on the fall of bodies. Bells arranged in descending order along the route ring as the spheres pass. “We can thus verify that there is an acceleration of the object during its fall”, comments our interlocutor. In his time, Galileo had replaced the bells with lute gut strings. The experiment had nevertheless proved to be convincing.
On Pluto, our weight is divided by 16!
Further on, scales invite you to measure your weight, depending on whether you are on the Earth, the Moon, Jupiter or Pluto. The scales do not give the same value: on the Moon, where the force of gravity is six times weaker than on the Earth, our weight is divided by 6. On Pluto, by 16! On the other hand, on Jupiter, we weigh 2.5 times our terrestrial weight because of a higher gravity.
A wooden cylinder whose lower part is weighted seems to go up a slope while it is only following the laws of gravitation.
DR
“Whaaah, that’s so cool!” says a teenager, passing through the Museum with his class. Elsewhere, a group is testing out a device called “You Make My Head Spin”. Following in the footsteps of Newton and Huygens, visitors are asked to ride on a kind of fixed scooter. The machine is rotated by pushing with one leg on the ground. And you change your speed of rotation by bringing your body closer to or away from the handlebars, like ice skaters who bring their arms along their body to turn faster. “Super stylish, this thing!” laugh the young people spinning like tops.
Drunken Boat
Inside another room, a drunken boat that owes nothing to Arthur Rimbaud gently pitches with its rower, on either side of its support. After a few oscillations, the metal boat spontaneously returns to the horizontal thanks to the ballast placed under its fulcrum. The demonstration by example of the center of gravity, dear to Archimedes.
A rocking boat, a balancing ballerina: two of the experiences offered at the Museum of the History of Science.
DR
In the same vein, a wooden figurine of a dancer keeps her balance on a wire stretched between two poles. It is connected by a metal rod to a ballast placed under it and under the wire. This ballast lowers the center of gravity of the assembly as much as possible, thus giving the ballerina a stable balance. It’s up to us to test it! A few short films support the interactive devices. Among them, that of a bearded vulture which uses gravity to break the bones of dead animals on which it feeds. The bird drops what it holds in its beak from a great height, so that the bones break on the rocks.
This tellurium reproduces the annual movement of the Earth around the Sun. Very fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries, this kind of device symbolized the greatness of Newtonian mechanics.
DR
One does not leave the Museum without taking a look at some handwritten or typewritten letters, excerpts from a correspondence between Albert Einstein and his Waldensian colleague Charles-Eugène Guye, professor of physics at the University of Geneva between 1900 and 1930 It’s not every day you get to see an autograph of Einstein up close.
“By force of circumstance”, Museum of the History of Science, Perle du Lac Park, 128 rue de Lausanne. Until March 2, 2025. Wed-Mon 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Information on museum-geneve.ch
You found an error?Please let us know.
2023-06-14 13:06:40
#Exhibition #Museum #History #Science #Aristotle #friends #gravitation #interactive
