The Magnetic Maze

Overview:

The idea is to have a room, or a section in a room, called the Magnetic Maze.

It will consist of a table, a screen showing a movie, a ball and gloves. The table, ball and the gloves are equipped with magnets the same pole, (all positive, or negative) The table will be inclined in some angle with the horizontal and in the middle of it, there will be a little maze that's higher than the table and leveling down to the table. The idea is that the table will repell the ball and it will “float” or hoover over the table. The children equipped with magnetic gloves (that also repel the ball) are now to move through the maze without being touched by the ball.

We also wish to include the effect of sound as a tool. One idea is to play back different sounds according to how or where the ball moves.

The screen is to play a movie that'll be educational of the actual game and of magnets in general.

The users of this system:

One or two children, age 5-12.

Claim:

Children is to learn something about “magnetic power” and have fun doing it.

We will play a film showing the magnetic properties. The film will describe that there are two poles in a magnet, the positive and the negative. It will show the four possible combinations of the poles, namely; positive-positive, negative-negative, positive-negative and finally negative-positive, and describing what happens in each cases. When the combination is of similar poles then the two magnets will repel each other and when the combination is of opposite poles then the two magnets will attract each other.

Next, children will see the ball in the air. We believe this to be amazing and the amusement can draw the attention of children to our table. And they will have fun playing this game without touching anything.

Assumption:

The ball will be hanging in the air and/or will be moving “by itself”

Usage:

Learning to use this will be based on watching the film and/or by trial and error.

Possible problems:

There can be too many kids in the room. They may disturb the kid(s) who is playing. This may be severe, and we will look into designs that support multiple users.

The actual construction of the table and the balance of the magnetic field.

2007-09-24T19:00:00