Airplay: A Hands-On Adventure

About the Exhibition

You can’t see it, and you can’t always feel it, but the movement of air affects us and our surroundings all the time. AirPlay: A Hands-On Adventure is a set of highly interactive exhibits that allows visitors to develop an intuitive understanding of how air moves and how moving air affects objects in its path. 

Our exhibition explores the properties of moving air by using devices that allow for the manipulation of air using air blowers, air columns, air blasts and gentle breezes. Our featured exhibits will provide a variety of experiences. For example, in one exhibit, model sailboats move along a tabletop, driven by the force of air. In another exhibit you’ll be able to feel the Bernoulli effect, important in keeping winged aircraft airborne. You can paint a wall of fluttering “shimmer disks” with a spray of air; see how a vacuum cleaner works and balance small balls on multiple columns of air. You’ll be able to make your own creations and explore the effect that moving air has on floating things, or simply experience artist Ned Kahn’s Aeolian Landscape, which, provides a quiet place for extended observations of how moving air can sculpt a landscape.

Mitch Luman, The George and Dorothy Eykamp Director

Koch Science Center and Planetarium

Learn more about the individual exhibits in Airplay: A Hands-On Adventure from our Director of Science Experiences, Mitch Luman, in the videos below.

Exhibition Images