Kinetic Garden

Location:

Entrance to Science Centre

Typical time required:

30 - 60 minutes

Serving as a frontage to welcome you to the Science Centre experience, the Kinetic Garden is a unique outdoor exhibition which demonstrates certain scientific priciples and phenomena that would be difficult to create in an indoor setting.

Come and discover the inter-relationships between the different forms of energy and much more through interactive and interesting exhibits like the Magic Swing, a Sundial and a Lithophone.

Highlights

Lithophone

Do you know that humans in the New Stone Age (~10,000 - ~4000 BCE) already used stones as musical instruments? Strike the stone pieces and listen. What do you hear? This Lithophone (“litho” is Greek for stone, and “phone” means sound) is a musical instrument made up of stones of different lengths that produce different notes when struck. Do you know the physics behind this instrument? Think about a string instrument that produces different notes using strings of different lengths. Could the lithopone use the same principle? Let’s play a melody by following the musical score provided!

Walk Your Weight

Walk along the wooden plank to find the position where you and the load at the other end of the plank are balanced. The figure indicated at this position is your mass. Looking at the illustration, can you figure out the scientific principle behind this exhibit?

Magic Swing

This swing is loosely connected to a large pendulum at the side. The connection allows energy to move from the swing to the pendulum and back. If the swing and the pendulum take approximately the same time to swing back and forth, large amounts of energy can be transferred in a phenomenon called resonance. Sit on the swing and give yourself one big push to get started – then just sit and don't touch the floor again. The energy from the swing will be transferred to the pendulum at the side, which will start swinging, and the swing that you are sitting on may come to an almost complete stop. Stay seated for a bit longer and see what happens next! Will the energy transfer back from the pendulum to make you swing again? This kind of back-and-forth exchange of energy is a common occurrence in science, from simple mechanics to quantum physics.