Strange Matter is more than just this Web site - you can experience
it in person when it comes
to a science center near you! Over a dozen hands-on experiences
and exhibits give you a close encounter with the amazing world
of modern materials and materials science.
What's materials science? You could call it the study
of stuff! Just about everything you use every day - the shoes you
wear, the dishes you eat from, the CDs you listen to, the bike
or skateboard you ride - it's all made of different
kinds of stuff. What is Materials Science? explains
it in more detail - or you can encounter Strange Matter on-line with
these Fun
Activities!
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Coming to the exhibition? Here's some of what you'll
see when you visit:
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Amazing Magnetic Liquids
Want to feel something really weird? Swish your gloved hand around in a vat of magneto-rheological fluid and feel it morph from fluid to solid at the touch of a button. Make a pool of magnetic ferrofluid "dance" and
manipulate blobs of ferrofluid with rare-earth magnets. You'll explore
the surprising properties of these materials and discover how their unusual
micro-structure makes them useful in all kinds of places - from your laundry
room to the operating room. |
Amorphous Metal
Meet the future of metals. The unusual structure of amorphous metals makes
them incredibly hard. Drop one ball bearing on a platform made of amorphous
metal and another on a platform made of metal with a normal crystalline
atomic structure. The result is astounding: while one ball behaves in an
expected fashion, the other bounces for an impossibly long time.
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Crystals
Crystal growth occurs in many types of materials. This exhibit provides the
compelling opportunity to watch the beautiful, real-time growth of a crystal's
intricate patterns. See a sample of one of the world's largest crystals,
along with a dizzying array of smaller crystal examples.
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Demo Theater
Through the use of multimedia and live demonstrations, this unique demonstration/lab
space brings together many elements of the exhibition. Take part in a facilitated
lab experiment and find out how and why you are a materials scientist.
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Foam
Watch a dramatic column of foam reach for the ceiling. Feel the form and learn
the functions of a variety of foam samples. Marvel at the lightest material
ever made -aerogel - and see its weight balanced by grains
of rice.
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Materials Evolution
Could a strand of spider silk actually stop a 747 in flight? What do modern
firefighters and medieval knights have in common? This exhibit area will
allow you to trace the fascinating and often unexpected development of
materials throughout history - from "The Iceman" (3300
BCE) to the present world of the "Material Girl", while discovering
which materials have played a key role in human civilization.
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Materials Science Overview Video
How does materials science use atoms and molecules to design the "stuff" of
our everyday lives? How has it changed human history and how does the performance
of materials grow from their structure, properties and processing? In this
video, you'll meet materials scientists who bring it all together.
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Memory Metals
Bend and twist a Nitinol metal ribbon, a startling example of a metal with
a memory, and see it return to its original shape with a little bit of
hot air. Why is this metal different from many others, and what can it
be used for?
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Sand to Supercomputers
Touch the top of a giant, shining column of silicon grown from a "seed"
in a lab, follow the painstaking process through which sand is transformed
into microchips, and learn why there's a lot more to silicon than
Silicon Valley.
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Smash the Glass
Crank up a bowling ball and let it fly - you'll find out if heat-tempered
glass has the strength to withstand the shock or if the pane of glass will
shatter. A counter will allow visitors to keep track of how many times the
glass has been hit. Will the glass shatter in 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days...
10 months?
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Structure and Defects
Play with a sheet of ball bearings and discover how this simple model can be
used to investigate the secret structures, strengths and weaknesses of
metals.
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Touch Tables
At our touch tables you can join curious children of all ages in discovering
materials through hands-on experimentation. This area offers a variety
of experiences involving texture, color, and other properties of materials,
and provides an array of instruments to facilitate exploration. "Tumble
tubes" offer children the chance to invert columns containing various
mixtures, helping them learn about the nature of granular and liquid behavior.
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Zoom!
Some things seem smooth to the naked eye, but what if you could get a much closer look? Zoom from the macro to the nano scale and find out how scientists "feel
atoms" using Atomic Force Microscopes.
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