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APRIL 2004

Magical fun at AMNH: Exploratorium
by Jan Aaron

Lots of kids are passing through the looking glass these days in a kind of wonderland at the American Museum of Natural History. They also exchange faces with their friends, stop tornadoes, and keep their hands in the clouds (and their feet on earth). No, the museum is not training a new crop of David Copperfields.   In fact, it's quite the opposite. There's no magic here: What the museum offers is amazing range of displays to explain natural laws to people of all ages.

The show, "Exploratorium\ AMNH" (through August 15), comprised of 35 exhibits from San Francisco's famed interactive museum, illustrates such complex phenomenon as angular momentum, oscillation, and optical fluid dynamics through interactive climb on, walk through, and rotate on exhibits. "It's a place for people play or get seriously into the forces that shape our universe," explains Myles Gordon, the museum's vice president for education.

However, it can look magical: For instance, an ingenious arrangement of mirrors and lights makes visitors "take off" and appear in space and ducking into a mirrored hall creates the impression of a crowd. You also can send your hands through a mirror. (Well, not really!)

The show has four sections: Earth Process, here activities range from sculpting sand dunes to playing with a sea of clouds. Rotation, invites kids to whirl on a "momentum machine" (very popular). Mirrors and Illusion shows how you can't always believe what you see, and Pendulums allows kids to draw complex patterns with a colored pen at a swinging table and discover secrets behind such things as the timekeeping tick-tock of a grandfather clock.

Eternally patient explainers are on hand throughout the exhibition to guide investigations and offer tips on operating the exhibits. The exhibits are signed in English and Spanish and accessible to people with disabilities.

Crave more? You can further explore many of the exhibition's topics in museum's Rose Center for Earth and Space and Science (Central Park West at 79th Street; timed entry for Exploratorium, daily, every half-hour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tickets range from $11-19, and include museum admission.)#

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