Visitors speak softly into one end and are heard clearly at the other end, many yards away. The energy of sound typically spreads out in all directions, however, Speaking Tubes illustrate how the energy of one's voice can be channeled within a tube. This exhibit is made up of 200 feet of bendable tubes, three inches in diameter. The reflectors in this exhibit face one another approximately 80 feet apart. When a visitor speaks or even whispers into the focal point of one of the dishes, the individual can be heard clearly by a person at the other dish.
Participants step on three wooden beams that are mounted like a seesaw on ground level.
The seesaw movement forces air through musical pipes creating a variety of sounds. When the Octascope is moved, new symmetric shapes and arrangements are created by the turning of mirrors. Visitors are invited to climb the giant net and explore principles of a tensile structure. As visitors climb around this exhibit, they can feel how the structure responds to their weight. The Climbing Space Net demonstrates the use of force vectors, as force is spread out over the entire structure.