Contact: Christina Kahler
Director of Marketing & Public Relations
Omaha Children’s Museum
(402) 930-2353
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 30, 2008
REV YOUR ENGINES! “SPEED” OPENS AT
OMAHA CHILDREN’S MUSEUM JANUARY 31
SPEED: 1. swiftness; quick motion 2. rate of movement; velocity 3. an arrangement of gears
Omaha, NE - Accelerate and break the sound barrier at Omaha Children’s Museum for SPEED,
the museum’s newest traveling exhibit. SPEED opens on January 31 and will continue through
April 19. A museum member preview will be held at 9 a.m. on January 31 and the exhibit will
open to the public at 10 a.m.
SPEED is a 6,000 square foot experience delivering a high-speed plunge into the world of high
performance, limit stretching, and barrier smashing motion. Using examples from race cars,
planes, boats and eccentric and custom vehicles, SPEED includes 21 interactive hands-on
components. The experiences focus on the science and technology of pushing the envelope to
achieve record setting speed while explaining the limits of getting there. Visitors can test their
skills as a world class downhill skier, build their own rollercoaster and much more!
The exhibit is divided into five areas: PUSH, GO, ZOOM, DRAG & STOP. It’s also loaded with
cool facts and unbelievable true stories of people who have dared to test the limits of speed like
Air Force Colonel John Paul Stapp. He was not only the "fastest human on earth;" he was the
quickest to stop. The exhibit also follows Cheryl Stearns, a 46-year-old US Airways captain and
21-time U.S. women’s parachuting champion, who is still trying to break the speed of sound with
her body by planning a free fall from 24 miles above the earth.
On opening day, Saturday, January 31 at 10:30 a.m., Diandra Leslie‐Pelecky, author of The
Physics of NASCAR® and University of Texas professor (previously a professor at University of
Nebraska-Lincoln) will make a presentation about the science of speed related to racing. LesliePelecky is using her experiences as a scientist at the race track and the race shop to motivate
kids and adults to get interested in math and science. The presentation will be included with
exhibit admission and limited space is available. Seating will be first-come, first-served.
Exhibit Sections
The exhibit, created by COSI Columbus with support from the National Science Foundation and
the Science Museum Exhibits Collaborative, presents five sections.
1. GO! - This area investigates speed as a quantity. What is speed and how fast do we achieve
it? What are the features that enhance or retard speed? What are the mathematical relations that
govern the concept of going fast? In Go! guests can build their own car to find out how different
designs impact speed and experience Carvolution to find out how design has affected 90 years of
Indianapolis 500 winners' times.
2. STOP! - The causes and consequences of rapid deceleration. What happens when speed
vanishes? What does it mean to say that stopping is really accelerating? Guests will hear stories
of what it’s like when racecar drivers Hit the Wall and crash. They will also get to smash pennies
with the Penny Smasher to find out what happens to objects during rapid deceleration.
3. DRAG! - Despite Newton's Laws, common experience shows us things slow down. Here we
find out why. What are the various impediments to speed, both on solid ground and in the air? In
Drag! Guests can Spin Their Wheels while they try to manage friction relative to speed and learn
how aerodynamics help vehicles preserve speed.
4. PUSH! - Explore the sources of speed and where it comes from. How do you get speed and
how do you keep it? Guests learn about g-force, acceleration and thrust and how they effect how
fast we go. Visitors climb into the Bobsleds and feel the effects of a human push and build their
own roller coasters to find out how design can give them the push they need to go fast.
5. ZOOM! - Strange things happen at high speeds, things that defy common sense. Find out just
how fast the speed of sound is and why we call the speed of light the ultimate barrier. Here watch
and listen as a cord is pulled on a bullwhip to create a sonic boom and break the sound barrier.
Exhibit Highlights
Ski Simulator
Challenge a friend on an Olympic style ski run.
Horsepower Bike
Guests explore the mathematics of horsepower by pedaling a stationary bicycle for two at over
200 miles per hour.
Penny Stopper
Guests explore the effects of instantaneous deceleration by injecting their coin into a stream of
high velocity air. The air smashes the coin against a steel cylinder. The altered coin is then
returned to its owner.
Stop Motion Anime
Guests capture digital images of their props and make their own movie. Stop motion techniques
mimic real motion best when the animator understands the simple relationship between distance
and time.
Build Your Own Car
Guests build cars out of Legos®. Choices about weight distribution and tire size make a big
difference when the cars race against one another on an inclined track.
Spin Your Wheels
Compete with model dragsters to cross the finish line first. The start of the race is the key. How
fast can the driver accelerate without losing traction? The successful driver will have discovered
the importance of static friction.
Speed of Thought
When the lights suddenly turn red and start the clock, how quickly can the guests respond and
stop the clock? The speed of thought, though very fast, is significantly slower than the speed of
light.
SPEED is supported locally by Rainbow Connectors Guild, Iowa West Foundation, The Douglas
County Board of Commissioners, Dixon Family Foundation, Midwest Airlines and Centris Federal
Credit Union.
###
About Omaha Children's Museum
Since its inception in 1976, Omaha Children's Museum has been a special place where children
can challenge themselves, discover how the world works and learn through play. The mission of
Omaha Children's Museum is to engage the imagination and create excitement about learning.
The museum's permanent exhibits include Charlie Campbell Science & Technology Center,
Creative Arts Center including the Karen Levin Artist-in-Residence Studio and Imagination
Playground. In addition to its permanent exhibits, Omaha Children's Museum offers educational
programs, traveling exhibitions, field trips, outreach programs, summer camps and early
childhood programs.
For more information visit http://www.ocm.org
Museum Winter Hours (Starting Feb. 1):
Tuesday - Friday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Closed Monday and major holidays*
*open Monday on some school holidays
Admission
Members, Free
Children under 24 months, Free
Children ages 2-15, $7
Adults ages 16-59, $7
Seniors 60+, $6
SPEED Admission
Members, Free
Non-Members (5 years & older), $2
SPEED Exhibition Description
In science, speed is a ratio: distance over time. When combined with human ambition, speed
becomes much more. What is fast? From where does speed arise? What are the
impediments to speed? Are there barriers, and if so, how can they be overcome?
What happens when speed disappears?
Throughout the exploration, we return always to the human face of speed, finding
inspiration from the worlds of sport, entertainment, and cutting-edge research. Who
are these people, testing their own abilities and the limits of technology, to re-define
again and again that simple relationship of distance and time?
Exhibits in SPEED are straightforward and authentic. Each has at its heart the physical
reality of speed, and illuminates directly at least one of several speed-related concepts
such as acceleration, horsepower, or friction.
The environmental design emphasizes energy and motion. Forms and colors are
inspired by Japanese anime techniques. Large anime characters dominate the visual
field, and serve as larger-than-life illustrations of the speed stories we tell. Exhibit
components are exposed, materials are industrial, machined metals and graphics
dominate. Exhibits economize both space and material, presenting only that which is
needed.
Interpretive signs are integrated into the architecture of SPEED. Bold and splashy, they
too draw their inspiration from Japanese anime. This form allows, and in fact
encourages, a concentration of words, pictures, and mathematical expressions. Always
in these signs we tell our stories with a direct, unsentimental voice, allowing the
passion, heroism, and often oddball humor of the tales themselves to shine through.
© 2006 COSI Columbus
Push!
Here we explore the sources of speed. Where does speed come from? How do you get
going fast, and how do you keep it up? What do we mean by acceleration, g-force, and
thrust?
Major Story
Coaster Wars
Modern roller coasters push to the very edges of human
endurance. New coaster designs stretch further the existing
records for height, acceleration, and speed. Modern coasters
have become so complex that they demand advanced
technology just to keep the cars from leaving the track and the
occupants from passing out.
Interactives
Ski Simulator
Guests climb into a pair of skis for a virtual simulation of an
downhill race. Fed by gravity and human pushing power, a
skier can obtain amazingly high speeds and accelerations.
Build a Coaster
Guests dream up and build their own roller coasters out of
modular parts. The sections are straight, looped or curved
steel rails and the cars are ball bearings. The simplicity of the
materials allows for a wide variety of designs, including
looping coasters, spirals, multiple hills, etc. The relationships
between height, acceleration, and velocity are explored.
Horsepower Bike
Guests measure their ability to produce horsepower by
pedaling a stationary bicycle. A clever arrangement of gears
and chains results in a rapidly rotating final gear. The final
gear speeds up and slows down as the horsepower supplied
the human “engine” waxes and wanes. Both the gear rotation
rate and the horsepower are displayed on large LED screens.
Accompanying graphics explore the mathematics of
horsepower, and relate this important concept to speed.
© 2006 COSI Columbus
Stop!
The causes and consequences of rapid deceleration are the topic here. What happens when
speed vanishes? What does it mean to say that stopping is really accelerating?
Major Story
John Paul Stapp
In 1954, Air Force Colonel John Paul Stapp survived a rapid
deceleration totaling 45 g’s in a controlled experiment to
determine how best to protect pilots and others from the
detrimental effects of crashes. Stapp was the chief researcher
in the experiments, but he refused to subject anyone else to the
gut-wrenching experimental rocket sled known as “Sonic
Wind”. Stapp’s speed of 632 mph was achieved in a leisurely
5 seconds, but was reduced to zero in only 1.4 seconds and
resulted in bruises over most of the colonel’s body, including
on the inside of his eyelids.
Interactives
Penny Stopper
Guests inject their coin into a stream of high-velocity air. The
air stream catches the coin and smashes it against a wall. The
altered coin is then returned to its owner. An accompanying
slow-motion video shows the effects of instantaneous
deceleration.
Train Game (Stop That Train) A passenger train computer simulation challenges guests to
accelerate to cruising speed, and then decelerate at the proper
rate to reach the station safely and on schedule. Speed as a
ratio of distance over time is a crucial element.
Crash Test (Art of Stop)
Guests slow down and speed up video footage of speedinduced crashes. A few frames of each movie will contain
graphic call-outs describing the effects of instantaneous
deceleration, pointing out the first signs of trouble.
Hit the Wall
Guests hear audio interviews with race car drivers sharing their
experiences and answering the question, “how does it feel to
hit a wall?”
Stop-Motion Animation
Stop-motion techniques mimic real motion best when the
animator understands the simple relationship between distance
(how much should the prop move?) and time (what is the
frame rate?).
© 2006 COSI Columbus
Go!
In Go! we investigate speed as a quantity. What is speed and how do we achieve it? What
are the features that enhance or retard speed? What are the mathematical relations that
govern the concept of going fast?
Major Story
Firehawk 600
In a move unprecedented in major American motor sports,
CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) in April 2001
postponed indefinitely a scheduled race on the Texas Motor
Speedway. Why? The track was too fast.
Interactives
Gravity Race (Build Your
Own Car)
Guests build cars out of a bin of Lego parts. Choices about
weight distribution and tire size make a big difference later
when the cars race against others on a track. The effect of
vehicle design on performance is the focus.
Carvolution
Using buttons and a monitor, guests flip through images of
ninety years of Indianapolis 500 winners, showing how car
designs, and consequently car speeds, have changed over
time. Graphics give information about technological
innovations that affected the look of the cars over time.
Finger Speed
Guests push a button as fast as they possibly can for five
seconds. A computer readout records the number of pushes
to and displays high scores. Guests compare the speed of their
moving fingers against one another.
Sounds of Speed
Guests are prompted to make several Speed-related sound
effects, which are then inserted into an animated short or slide
show. Many of the prompts will reference speed concept such
as the Doppler Effect and the sonic boom.
Travel Sim
Guests plan a trip around the world. First a year is chosen
from a list of possibilities. Next, guests choose from the
available modes of travel in the different eras. If multiple trips
are completed, guests may compare their average and top
speeds for each trip they take.
Vehicle Designer
This computer activity encourages guests to choose engines,
wheels, and body types to create their own vehicle. Supporting
graphics describe how vehicle design impacts performance.
© 2006 COSI Columbus
Drag!
Despite Newton’s Laws, common experience shows that things slow down. Here we find out
why. What are the various impediments to speed, both on solid ground and in the air?
Major Story
Race Around the World
Racing in the around-the-world endurance race known as the
Vendee Globe Challenge, 24-year-old Ellen MacArthur
finished second, becoming the youngest person ever to
circumnavigate the Earth alone. The course of the race took
MacArthur and the other competitors from France across the
equator and through the Great Southern Ocean, under the
world’s three great capes, and then back up through the
Atlantic to finish in France again, three or more months later.
To finish the race at all is an accomplishment, as most
competitors are forced out by bad weather or mechanical
failure. More than one racer has died in the attempt.
Interactives
Turbulence Tank
Guests manipulate various vehicle-shaped objects within a
moving fluid. The shapes are moved with magnets, and can
face the flow at various angles. Each shape responds
differently to the fluid, and in turn creates either smooth
(efficient) or turbulent (inefficient) flow within the fluid itself.
Drag Race (Spin Your Wheels) Guests compete to get a vehicle across a slippery surface in
the shortest possible time. The start of the race is the key.
How fast can you turn your wheels without losing contact with
the surface (in other words, slipping)? The successful racer will
have discovered that static friction (from non-slipping wheels) is
much more efficient than sliding friction at moving a car
forward.
Fluid Diving (Viscosity Race)
Guests rotate a wheel housing three tubes filled with different
viscous liquids. Within each tube is a PowerPuff Girl that falls
through the liquid after being released from a magnetic bond
at the top. The PowerPuff Girl in the least viscous fluid reaches
the bottom first, while the others trail behind.
© 2006 COSI Columbus
Omaha Children’s Museum
January 31-April 19, 2009
SPEED FUN FACTS:
•
The world is moving, literally. With an average orbital speed of 67,000 mph,
planet Earth is traveling faster than virtually anything on it.
•
The Earth’s average distance from the Sun is 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000
km). The distance it travels as it completely circles the Sun is 580,000,000 miles
(930,000,000 km).
•
COSI President and CEO, Kathryn Sullivan, holds the Guinness World Record
for highest speed reached by a woman. She traveled at a speed of 17,809 mph
during the start of re-entry at the end of the April 1990 Discovery space shuttle
mission that launched the Hubble Space Telescope.
•
The speed of light is the fastest thing we can measure and is often called the
ultimate barrier. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second.
•
It takes 8.3 minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth.
•
The speed of sound is approximately 740 mph. When an object “breaks the
sound barrier,” a sonic boom is created. The sonic boom is the shockwave
produced by a body that goes from sub-sonic (slower than sound) to supersonic
(faster than sound) speed in air.
•
Despite popular belief, a penny dropped off the top of the Empire State Building
would not kill someone on the ground. Given that the Empire State Building is
1250 feet tall and ignoring such factors as wind resistance, a penny dropped
from the top would hit the ground in approximately 8.8 seconds, having reached
a speed of roughly 280 feet per second (190 mph). That’s fast enough to sting
your skin if it should hit you, but not fast enough to cause serious injury.
•
The fastest animals:
o
o
o
Running: A cheetah can run up to 70 mph.
Flying: A peregrine falcon can fly up to 60 mph and reach 200 mph in
dives.
Swimming: A sailfish can swim up to 68 mph.
Zoom!
Strange things happen at extremely high speeds, things that always surprise us and that
sometimes seem to fly in the face of common sense. Just how fast is sound, and what exactly
is a sonic boom? And why is the speed of light called the ultimate barrier?
Major Story
Cheryl Stearns - Spacediver
American aviator and skydiver Cheryl Stearns will attempt to
break a long-standing altitude record for skydiving. Stearns
will jump from a balloon 130,000 feet above the surface of
the Earth. In the process, Stearns will attempt to become the
first human to break the sound barrier without the aid of a
vehicle.
Interactives
Relatively Speaking
Guests explore, at their own pace, the shocking fact that every
one of us is always moving at the speed of light. We achieve
this remarkable speed not in normal space, but in fourdimensional space-time. This fact and many others all arise
from a single, simple discovery: the speed of light is always the
same, no matter where the light comes from or who does the
measuring.
Infinity Mirror
Guests manipulate two parallel mirrors to create a seemingly
infinite set of images regressing to the vanishing point. But are
there an infinite number of images? A bit of thinking about
the finite speed of light reveals that the answer is no.
Shout Tube
Five hundred and sixty four feet and six inches of coiled pipe is
placed between the guest’s mouth and ear. Speaking into one
end of the pipe causes a delayed signal to reach the other.
Sound travels through air at around 700 feet a second,
resulting in a delay of (1/2 second).
Speed of Thought
Green lights flash randomly in a circle preparing guests for the
unknown moment when the light will suddenly turn red,
starting the clock. How quickly can the guest respond, press a
button and stop the clock? The speed of thought, though very
fast, is significantly slower than the speed of light.
© 2006 COSI Columbus
Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
author of
®
Saturday, January 31, 10:30 a.m.
Former University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor,
Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, will make a presentation
about the science of speed related to racing. LesliePelecky is using her experiences as a scientist at the
race track and the race shop to motivate kids and
adults to get interested in math and science.
Book Signing to follow presentation
The presentation will be included with exhibit admission and limited space is available. Seating will be first-come, first-served.
SPEED is sponsored by:
Rainbow Connector's Guild, Iowa West
Foundation, The Douglas County Board of
Commissioners, Dixon Family Foundation,
Midwest Airlines, Centris Federal Credit Union
SPEED was created by COSI Columbus with
support from the National Science Foundation
and in cooperation with the Science Museum
Exhibit Collaborative.
(402) 342-6164
www.ocm.org
Museum Admission
Members
Kids under 24 mos.
Kids 2-15
Adults 16-59
Adults 60+
Free
Free
$
7
$
7
$
6
Exhibit Admission*
Members
Non-Members
(5 years and older)
*Regular museum admission applies
Information subject to change
500 S 20th Street
Omaha, NE 68102
FREE
Parking
Winter Hours
Free
2
$
S
1-5
M
CLOSED*
T
†
W
T
F
S
10-4 10-4 10-4 10-4 10-5
*Open some Mondays during school holidays
†
Closed on major holidays
Extended summer hours offered Memorial
Day through Labor Day