Galleries you will visit: Information Age, Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, Flight and Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery.
Stop 1: Pendulum – Pippard Pendulum Exhibition, Level 0
This curious object is a recreation of a famous experiment staged by Léon Foucault in Paris in 1851. If you see it again during today’s visit you might notice that the movement of the pendulum’s swing keeps rotating.
Whilst it may appear that you are stationary and the pendulum is moving, actually it’s the Earth that has moved and you with it.
Stop 2: Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, Level 2
The beautiful shapes that form this gallery were designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
Dame Zaha Hadid trained as a mathematician before studying architecture. She said “When I was growing up in Iraq, math was an everyday part of life. We would play with math problems just as we would play with pens and paper to draw. Math was like sketching”.
Her visionary design is based on the airflow currents created as an aircraft, like the one displayed, moves through the sky. It is the only museum gallery designed by Hadid in the world.
Stop 3: Electronic model of the North Sea – Mathematics: The Winton Gallery, Level 2
Imagine losing your home, or your life, in a flood. That’s what happened to tens of thousands of people in Britain and Northern Europe during the devastating North Sea Flood of 1953.
A few years later oceanographer Shizuo Ishiguro, father of famous novelist Kazuo, built this device to model how water motion, wind and weather effects interact in the North Sea. Better predictions of storm surges and increased flood defences helped to avoid further disasters of the same scale.
Stop 4: ARM1 microchip – Information Age, Level 2
Leave Mathematics: The Winton Gallery and enter Information Age. This gallery tells the story of how our lives have been transformed by information and communication technologies.
Go to your right as you enter the gallery to the Cell section. There are lots of intriguing objects to explore, can you find Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber’s small ARM1 microchip?
Following our curiosity has never been easier. Smartphones have changed the way we live, and it’s hard to remember how we discovered new information or communicated with our friends and family without them.
It’s all made possible by tiny microchips which efficiently provide abundant computing power while demanding comparatively little energy. On display is one of the first chips made for the mass market.
Stop 5: Braille radio – Information Age, Level 2
Head to the centre of the gallery and look to your left where you will spot a Braille Radio on a white table under the Broadcast wall.
What technology do you use for entertainment and to check the news? In the 1920s most people enjoyed listening to the radio. This radio was supplied by The British Wireless for the Blind Fund, which was set up by Captain Sir Beechcroft Towse.
Towse was a member of the armed forces who lost his sight in 1900 during the Boer War.
What technologies do you use to make everyday tasks easier?
At the end of the gallery, go up staircase E or take lift E to Level 3 and enter Flight.
Stop 6: Engine from Concorde – Flight, Level 3
On the left as you enter the gallery you will see a large Engine from Concorde sitting in a yellow metal frame.
Creating a new technology, like this supersonic engine, relies on the expertise, dedication, and hard work of thousands of people. Using four of these engines the Concorde planes could reach a whopping speed of 1300 mph – twice the speed of sound. This one was tested on both the French and British prototypes of the supersonic airliner.
Stop 7: Amy Johnson’s Gipsy Moth ‘Jason’ – Flight, Level 3
Amy Johnson was a pioneering pilot and engineer. In 1930 she became the first woman to make a solo flight from Britain to Australia in this plane, which she named “Jason”. Johnson’s engineering expertise was vital in helping her to maintain and repair “Jason” on the 19-and-a-half-day journey to Port Darwin.
She continued to break records throughout her lifetime, including becoming the first person to fly from London to Moscow in one day, with her co-pilot Jack Humphreys.
Exit Flight the way you came, using the lift or stairs to travel down to Level 0 and turn right into the Tomorrow’s World gallery.
Stop 8: The tidal turbine blade in Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Gallery, Level 2
For the final object head towards the West Hall at the back of the museum. Go up stairs or take lift F to level 2 to go to Energy Revolution.
Regular tides provide a predictable source of renewable energy from coastlines where there are strong tidal flows. The coast of Orkney is one such place, and the islands have a large research centre to test and improve tidal energy. This tidal turbine blade was part of a 63-metre-long, 500-tonne vessel called the SR2000 that was launched in 2016. During its 12-month test period it generated enough electricity to power a thousand homes.
Extra stops:
Extend your tour by visiting Wonderlab.
Revealing the beauty of the science and maths that shape our everyday lives, this unmissable experience will ignite your curiosity, fuel your imagination and inspire you to see the world around you in new and exciting ways.
Where to eat:
On Level 0 you will find the Energy Cafe if you fancy treating yourself to lunch, or with one of our homemade cakes and an award-winning coffee.
At home:
Discover the wonder of science… wherever you are! Inspired by our Wonderlab galleries of the same name, Wonderlab+ is our free website for families where users can play games, do quizzes and be inspired to get hands-on with science and maths.