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auskiwi
auskiwi
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4 out of 5
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The Science and Technology Centre

  • August 29, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by auskiwi from Tacoma, Australia
The Science and Technology Centre

We decided that on the way home we should stop of in Canberra again and do something else. The guys all wanted to go to the Go-cart track so we packed up our belongings, stuffed it all into the cars and set off.

Unfortunately the Go-cart track was closed when we got there so we moved to Plan 2 – let’s visit the Science and Technology Centre (Questacon). All we have to do is find it.

Yeah, yeah – how hard can it be you ask? Easy – just follow the signs directing you to the wrong building – we ended up outside the Australian National Museum.

Another 10 minutes later we finally made it to our intended destination, we parked the cars, paid the $15 entry fee per adult and entered.

The Questacon is a large centre dedicated to anything and everything associated with science and technology and that is totally hands-on.

There are all sorts of things on display including:

- There’s a section dedicated to all the things you would find in a sideshow alley. From rotating clowns heads, electronic fortune teller, distortion mirrors, a simulator ride, a free fall drop, and other sideshow attractions.

- There’s a sport-related section which has machines that can calculate how fast you can run/walk, how high you can jump, how fast you can throw a ball, how well you can balance, just to name a few.

- There’s a small kids' section full of all sorts of small climbing frames, areas full of small balls – anything a small child would love.

- There’s a section on natural phenomena including a lightning making machine, an earthquake simulator, a tsunami simulator, and a tornado simulator.

- There’s a spy section which has on display all types of things associated with codes, spies, code breaking devices, and security devices – there’s even a laser network setup where you can try to work your way across a small area avoiding the laser beams all the way.

- There’s a section dedicated to visual effects items which includes movement sensors and projectors, displays of the different types of lens (frasnel, fish eye and the like), holograms, image projection, and many more.

- Lastly there’s a section which has displays associated with levelers, pulleys, pivots, and fulcrums – you can sit in a small chair lift and pull yourself up using the pulleys, you can lift a mate, hanging onto a rope, of the floor by using a pivot just to name a couple.

The Questacon also has a lecture theatre where, at several times throughout the day, they hold short lecturers about the different areas of science and technology – the talk we went to was a 25-minute discussion about the solar system and the planets. It was really interesting just to find out about the numbers, sizes, and distances of and between the different planets, suns, minor planets, moons, comets, and meteorites that make up the solar system. 

From journal Snowtrip to the New South Wales Snowfields

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