Grace Semaan
Today we got to explore the rest of the Teknisk museum and if we thought the medical history was cool, the rest of it was astonishing. After our tour guide brought us through the third floor which included the history of cars, motorcycles, planes, and other transportation in Norway, he brought us into the history of technology area. There were a lot of interesting physics gadgets and also some chemistry tools. I was really excited to hear the tour guide’s degree was in biochemistry as I got to talk to him more about that and some of the tools that were displayed in the museum. I specifically noticed an old set of weights that are typically used to calibrate a balance. This piqued my interest as I just finished my instrumental analysis chemistry course (aka analytical chemistry) where we used weight sets, that looked equally as ancient, to calibrate our balances in the lab.
After the guided tour was done I explored the rest of the museum taking special interest in the wood making and workshop areas, the interactive light exhibit, and the sound exhibit. It was so interesting to see the manual lathes and mills they had, and how they resemble the ones we have in the new HFIC on campus. Now, the ones on campus are considerably nicer and more modern, but some of the handles and movement of the equipment were exactly the same and I thought that was cool. The workshop room was also intriguing to me because my grandpa built a workshop next to his house since he did a lot of woodworking and I felt like I was back there as I peered inside. I recognized a lot of equipment and the layout was also extremely familiar. I took lots of photos for my family as I know they’ll be excited to see something so familiar looking in a Norwegian museum.
The light exhibit was probably my favorite part of today because it was so interactive and also had plenty of really cool photo opportunities. One of the main things we learn about in physical chemistry is light wavelengths and what information we can learn from the various wavelengths of light. It was so interesting to see how they summed that information up into palatable and fun blurbs of information that anyone could understand, or demonstrate it through the exhibits and the usage of various lights. The concept of mirrors, reflection, and refraction was also added into this section. The funky mirrors were extra whacky, which made pics with the girlies a laughable experience. I think the museum did a great job with this section in not only expressing really complex ideas, but also making it fun for kids and adults to experience hands on.
Lastly, I explored the sound area that had studios to try instruments out in, and the development of music technology in Norway. I really enjoyed how the museum had buttons you could press to hear how all the different instruments sounded. My grandma was an organist, which means my mom is very musically inclined, so it was so cool to see the development of these instruments. I, once again, took a lot of photos to show my mom once I get back home as I recognized quite a few instruments and technologies used to create music. Shortly after this, I was informed that the museum had a Daguerreotype, which was the topic of my paper. I headed up to the 4th floor to see one in person and it was quite impressive. I’m so happy I got to see the real thing after doing so much research on the development of it. Overall, this museum is one of my all time favorites of museums I’ve ever been to because of the great way they present their artifacts and knowledge on said artifacts. Check out below for photos I captured of the fun stuff!
GRACE!! This was a fun read, it is well to see you are passionate about chemistry and the museum we visited. It was fun to read some of your findings and i appreciate your patience when I asked you questions about objects in the museum.
ReplyDeleteThanks for filling me in on the light portion of the museum! I think that is the only section I missed unfortunately but it sounded really interesting. I’m happy that you believed the museum broke down concepts into an interactive and engaging way. In contrast I spent a lot of time in the IT section which I also found really fascinating with the implementation of a curated tour with the tablets directing you towards objects you would most likely have interest in even though you could interact and learn more about some 60ish stations.
ReplyDelete-Michael
Grace, I had a similar reaction to the workshop, remembering my dad's small work area in the garage and my Grandpas garage and shed workshops from when I was younger. It's always interesting to see the continuity of people throughout history and how us and them aren't so different after all
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to summarize the second visit! I know that my family will also be excited to see pictures of the workshop. The light exhibits were a lot of fun to see and interact with too.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the Daguerreotype after your presentation was so cool! I loved being able to experience this piece of history in such a close physical proximity to myself, and I found it especially useful to have an expert on hand to re-explain the way it was developed and how the chemicals reacted with each other to produce a final image.
ReplyDelete