Maryland Science Center: Newsroom: Press Releases: CIRCUS! Exhibition Makes Visitors Part of the Show Maryland Science Center

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CIRCUS! Exhibition Makes Visitors Part of the Show

Opening at the Maryland Science Center October 1

Have you ever wondered how it feels to walk the tightrope high above the audience, imagined what it feels like to swallow a sword, or pondered how to bend your body like the contortionist? Experience all the thrills of a circus performer when Circus! Science Under the Big Top opens on October 1, 2005. This interactive exhibition explores the principles of science that make the circus fun by creating an experience where visitors become part of the show. Strap into a harness on the High Wire and try to walk a tightrope suspended nine feet off the ground. Learn why focus and concentration are necessary to navigate this dizzying experience, and gain insight into the body’s reaction to risk-taking.

Compare your own muscle strength to legendary circus performer The Mighty Atom in Feats of Strength. Take the Bending the Bar Challenge, by and using a dynometer to measure the force you exert while trying to reshape a steel bar.

If you like daredevil stunts and performances, secure yourself to the harness in Elastic Acrobatics to fly through the air with the greatest of ease, and perform aerial tricks like a trapeze superstar. In Daredevil Diablo, discover how physical prowess, bravery, creativity, and science needed are needed to survive the circus loop-the-loop! Think you have the nerve to be a human cannonball? Then launch projectiles from air-powered cannons to land on targets, and determine how angles, speed, gravity and air resistance are critical to a successful landing.

Explore the history, mystery, illusion and reality of the Sideshow, its performers and their talents. Sword swallowing is a delicate balance of training, knowledge of anatomy, and lots of courage. Push on the shaft of a sword, and see a fluoroscopic video of the actual path a blade takes as it is lowered into a real sword swallower’s torso.

Learn more about the human body and the practice the art of packanatomicalization (getting into small spaces) to find out if you have what it takes to fold yourself into a small box. The Contortionist shows how muscles, ligaments and tendons keep skeletons from collapsing in a heap, while not holding them together too tightly to prevent movement.

Sound is an important part of Circus!, too. Create music to match to short vignettes of circus performances, including aerialists on the trapeze, a clown’s pratfall, and performing poodles. Listen to circus animal noises and hear what researchers think the animals are saying in Animal Communication by listening to a lion, eavesdropping on an elephant or mimicking a monkey.

And what would the Circus! be without those undeniable smells? Take a whiff from a food vendor cart to recall scents ranging from the aromatic or fragrant to the earthy and unusual.

Find the secret to pink lemonade, and what a corn dog is really made from! And yes, other circus smells are explored too—visit Parade Remnants to see what your favorite circus animals eat, and what’s left behind when the circus moves on.

Circus! opens Saturday, October 1, 2005 and will run through New Year’s Day in the Legg Mason Gallery of the Maryland Science Center. The Maryland Science Center is located at 601 Light Street at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. For information and tickets, visit www.marylandsciencecenter.org or call the 24-Hour Information Line at 410-685-5225, TDD: 410-962-0223

The Maryland Science Center at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is visited by more than 550,000 people each year. Popular exhibits include: Dinosaur Mysteries which features more than a dozen full-size dinosaurs and interactive paleontology activities, an exploration of the day in the life of the human body in Your Body: The Inside Story, and add…dozens of interactive experiments in Newton’s Alley. Other popular attractions in the museum include the Kids Room, the five-story MIE Properties IMAX Theater, and the world-famous Davis Planetarium.

The Maryland Science Center is located at 601 Light Street at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. For information and tickets, visit www.marylandsciencecenter.org or call the 24-Hour Information Line at 410-685-5225, TDD: 410-962-0223.