Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 28, 1994 TAG: 9404010008
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There's also a place where you can exchange heads with a friend. Well, not really, but it will look that way.
And, you can shake hands with yourself.
If this sounds a little like Alice's Wonderland, it isn't, but parts of this new exhibit at the Science Museum of Western Virginia in Roanoke may be just as strange.
In fact, that's the whole idea behind ``Mindplay,'' three-dimensional puzzles, optical illusions, math ``magic'' and mazes taking up most of two floors at the museum.
The dictionary says optical means ``of or relating to vision'' or seeing; illusion means ``a misleading image presented to the vision.'' What this really means is things are not always what they appear to be. And ``Mindplay'' focuses on just that.
There's a stand-up maze to race your friends on, using your fingers. There are foam rubber cubes to assemble, three-dimensional wooden block puzzles to solve, large dice to arrange in a certain order, patterns to copy using huge matchsticks and animal puzzles to rearrange so designs repeat over the whole table top.
Caitlin Hody, 6, a pupil at Oak Grove Elementary School in Roanoke County, spent a long time working on the Somacube, wooden jigsaw pieces that fit together to make a block. ``I like this because I can't figure it out,'' she said. ``There's lots of things here to try to do.''
You can try to grab a quarter or a large metal spring, which seem to be within easy reach. You can try to solve the Towers of Hanoi puzzle, moving sets of wooden rings onto posts.
Find out what topology and polygonzo puzzles are and how to solve them. Or why a bent piece of metal turns into a triangle if you look at it through a hollow tube.
Solve a two-minute mystery or riddles or learn to use math in a different way.
``I like trying to solve the puzzles,`` said Christopher Pollio, 10, who goes to Community School. ``Other exhibits give you information. This one has you do things.''
If you really get stuck on the puzzles and want to give up, there are notebooks that give you solutions and answers.
Try to get through the 40- by 40-foot maze. It's not as easy as you might think. If you get really good at it, try it again on your next visit. The maze will be changed every two weeks.
(Mazes are a very old idea. The Egyptians built mazes into pyramids to prevent robbers from stealing treasures that were often buried with kings and other royalty. Early forts were protected by mazes to confuse enemies.)
``Mindplay'' helps you look at and think about ordinary things in a new way. By using logic (common sense) instead of the kind of thinking you sometimes do in school to solve problems, what seemed impossible to figure out is really not so hard.
Artists and magicians use illusions in their work. Architects also design buildings so that we see them the way they we think they should look. Columns on a building should look straight, right? They may not really be straight, but our perception (mental image) is that they are.
Did you know that part of our eye sees things upside down? Did you know no one is really sure why the brain sends that image back right side up? Imagine what would happen if it didn't.
Did you know our eyes see in two dimensions, not three? If our brains didn't translate what we saw into three dimensions, the world would look flat, just as Columbus thought.
``Mindplay'' can show you how our eyes may not show us what is really there.
The exhibit will be at the museum until May 8. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
Oh, and don't forget to bring your parents. It`s hard to tell if kids or adults have more fun here.
by CNB