Science kids.
Image: Vip Samarakoon
Source: BASF
Museum Victoria celebrates National Science week with a huge program!
During National Science Week (August 13-21) Museum Victoria is holding daily lectures. Learn about Antarctic fossils, mapping the Wallaby genome, volcanic Islands, meteorites and environmental issues facing Australia.
To make it personal, head to the Science Lounge and meet some of the museum’s scalier inhabitants, chat to a Museum Scientist or watch some SCINEMA.
Or get down and dirty at Scienceworks with chemistry workshops, vintage machinery in action and the Australian Skeptics on had to tell your future, dazzle you with magical illusions or offer you a rest on a bed of nails!
To get in the Science Week mood, here’s a quick experiment to do at your desk:
- Point both index fingers.
- Hold the tip of your right finger horizontally, about 10cm in front of your right eye. If you keep looking straight ahead you should see a transparent finger.
- Do the same with your left finger and eye, so that the fingers are pointing to each other.
- Keep looking straight ahead and you should see two transparent fingers.
- Now, slowly bring the tips of your fingers together. As the two transparent fingers cross you should see a double ended, solid finger floating between the two transparent fingers.
What’s happening?
Your finger looks transparent because one eye is seeing the finger and the other is seeing the room behind the finger. Your brain puts the two images together so you see a transparent finger.
When the two images cross you get a different result. One eye sees your right finger, while the other sees your left finger in the same place. Neither eye can see what is in the room behind the fingers, so the floating finger looks solid as your brain combines the two images.