The meter shows the voltage across the coil changing as the pendulum changes direction. A switch enables visitors to change how the coils are connected, so they see that it is electromagnetism that makes the coils swing, not vibration carried by the bar connecting them. Steam created by the heat of a nuclear or fossil fuel power plant drives turbines, moving coils of wire through magnetic fields, creating electricity. This exhibit explores energy in hot and cool weather and relates this information to improving energy efficiency in the home. A metal pyramid with the heat source inside has four metal walls insulated with different materials-plexiglass, wood, styrofoam and metal alone.
Visitors place their hands on each of the different walls.
Some walls are hot and some are cool to the touch, showing how heat transfers through conductors or does not travel through other materials which act as insulators. With the pyramid representing a home with perhaps the furnace on inside, visitors discover that wood is good insulator and not a conductor, for example, and therefore a good material for building homes. As the exhibit confirms, insulated wood is even better. Kinetic Transfer Machine Visitors set up their own energy chain in this large, colorful machine. They watch the ball move from ground level to the top of the machine through the conversion of chemical to potential energy, kinetic energy, sound energy and heat.