13 November 2016 – 195 107
Gravity Discovery Centre
Overnight it was again very cold when we went to bed, then
warming up when the wind dropped in the middle of the night and cool again just
before dawn – quite different to what I am accustomed to. This morning we drove north to the Gravity
Discovery Centre near Gingin.
This is a
very cool centre for all science nerds, particularly physics nerds! So, our family really enjoyed it. Inside there are a variety of interactive
experiments set up that demonstrate things like magnetic fields, gravity, wave movements,
visualisation of sound waves, Bernoulli’s principle, black hole, how electrical
conduction affects magnet movement and so on. There was also a section on
lasers and their interaction with different optical mediums such as soap
bubbles, dripping water (projecting images of the microbes in the water onto a
screen), seismic movements and so on. There
is also a 45m tower, complete with 222 steps to get to the top, that is on a
fifteen-degree lean. This allows
investigation of free falling – each person takes two balloons, one partially
filled with water and the other more extensively filled with water that are
dropped simultaneously from the top and you can see that they each reach the
ground at the same time.
Outside there
were also other interactive exhibits including a 1km walk with a scaled representation
of the solar system – with Pluto 1km from the sun, the sun was still huge, and
earth was about the size of a basketball.
We weren’t sure how long we would
need at the Gravity Discovery Centre so we chose to arrive at opening time –
just as well as we only left one hour before closing time! When we got back to
the van the boys had haircuts again.
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