Advertisement
Published: November 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Optical Illusion
Is it really Jude or just an illusion? Today we thought we'd give ourselves a break from the endless shopping malls in town and make a beeline instead for the Singapore Science Centre. We arrived at the MRT station without any trouble but finding the science centre proved unexpectedly difficult. The signage wasn't helpful and the map on the back of the leaflet was pretty vague, so we kind of followed the crowds and ended up in ....yes, you've guessed it.....a shopping mall! We did eventually find one of the principal roads mentioned on the map and S$6 (about £2.20) later, we were inside.
At the science centre we got to be big kids for the day as most of the exhibits were of the hands-on variety. The first hall featured some very clever optical illusions. Our favourite one was a trick table that made you look like your severed head was being served up on a platter! Next on the tour was the aviation room where we got to find out all about aerodynamics and the history of flight. We got to climb around inside a real helicopter, get an in-depth look at air traffic control and aircraft guidance systems and by the end, I felt much
Head on a Platter
Glynn took it a bit literally when Jude told him he looked good enough to eat... better about getting on our next plane :-) We took a stroll then through the chemistry lab but were disappointed to find no explosive substances or test tubes to play around with. We have a go on a photo mosiac machine that makes up an image of your face using hundreds of individual little photos, which was really cool.
Entry to the science centre includes a number of free scientific shows although not all shows run on all days, as we found out after running madly to be on time for the show in the Human Body exhibition, only to find out it wasn't on! We did make it to the Electricity show in the World of Energy section where they demonstrated stuff like a Jacob's Ladder where a charge of elecricity climbs horizontally up using two metal poles that are slightly apart, and they also showed the importance of lightning conductors on your house (I can vouch for the fact that you really should have one!). One of the last experiments called for a volunteer to sit in a metal cage and be struck by a bolt of lightning. Needless to say, no-one was too keen to have
Can You Guess Who It Is Yet?
Glynn and Jish get the photo mosaic treatment. Cool eh? a go so I kind of agreed to do it. I was quite scared when I went in but tried to remind myself that they wouldn't do it if it wasn't safe. So, there I was sat on a chair inside the Faraday Cage, being very careful not to be anywhere near the metal bars of the cage itself. The countdown began and in a terrifying moment, a blinding light and sharp crack of thunder pulsed across the room as my cage was hit by the equivalent of a million volts of electricity! All that just to demonstrate that the safest place to be in a thunderstorm is inside a car. Did you know that? Well, I lived to tell the tale, so I guess it must be true!!
Upstairs we attempted to explore the robotics lab but it was closed off for a private session. Instead we found an 'aging' machine that was able to show you what you looked like as a baby, a child, a teenager and what you will look like as you get older. We laughed a lot at the distorted images of ourselves - Glynn as a bouncing blue-eyed baby with beard and
Bird Cage
Here's Jude shortly before she got struck by a million volts of lightning! me looking uncannily like my mum when I get older. As for Jish, well apparently he's gonna be a very handsome bear when he grows up!
Afterwards, we moved down to a room full of mind baffling 3-D puzzles that had us engrossed for absolutley ages before we ventured off to watch the Tesla Coil show (which was strangely fitting as we had been to see The Prestige at the cinema in Melaka only a few days before and it featured one of these bizarre machines). We watched in awe as lightning bolts jumped across the apparatus, demonstrating wireless energy transfer which in turn illuminated a ring of light sticks being held by kids around the room. You've got to hand it to the people at the Science Centre - they know how to make science exciting.
We took a stroll outside in the Kinetic Garden to enjoy the last of the day's sunshine where we played with all manner of giant bits of equipment. One of the exhibits was about levers and pivot points for lifting heavy weights. On one end of the mechanism was a 200kg cube of crushed car and on the other end was
Baby Glynn
Could this be the world's first bearded baby? a selection of ropes at varying intervals. The idea was that the further away you are from the weight, the easier it would be to lever it up. Well, Glynn got to demonstrate just how mega-strong he is, as he was able to lift the 200kg using the nearest rope - basically a like-for-like weight lift. There were some Asian guys watching him who had attempted to do the same thing with 3 of them hanging on nearest rope and not managing to budge it at all. They were absolutely gobsmacked at Glynn's superhero strength to the point they gave him a round of applause!
Back inside, one of the last sections we encountered was all about sound and light and included wonderful gadgets such a a drumkit that plays in time to your heartbeat, a stringless electronic harp and a detailed explanation of how telephones and cathode ray TV sets work. It's hard to believe that something that seems so ordinary like a TV is actually a seriously complicated bit of engineering. We were very impressed. Unfortunately at this point, I managed to fall down a step and twisted my ankle and wrist in the process - only
Elderly Jude
Could this be the world's oldest facially pierced woman? me, eh? Thankfully it happened right at the end of the day so we didn't miss anything. Nevertheless, in the 6 hours we were there, we only got to see about two-thirds of the centre. If only we had time to come back again!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.145s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0536s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Linda
non-member comment
Cool!
I really like the sound of this place, there seems like so much to do and there was more!