Open House
Our 2008 Open House attracted more than 4,600 visitors – a new record. Watch slideshow.
It's free! It's fun! It's for everyone!
Every February, the Magnet Lab invites the public to spend the day at our world-class research laboratory. The free event, which draws thousands of visitors every year, features hands-on demonstrations, tours, games, informational videos, food, give-aways and the chance to meet and chat with our scientists and other Mag Lab staff.
Kids watch spuds fly during the popular potato cannon demonstration at the 2008 Open House.
Click for slideshow.
Open House 2008
Our most recent Open House took place on February 23, 2008, and was a huge success, drawing more than 4,600 people from the Tallahassee area. Among the highlights of the event was the inaugural Open House lecture series, which featured talks by some of the lab's most distinguished scientists. Links to some of the PowerPoint presentations are in blue below:
The Shocking Truth about Electricity and Magnetism (PowerPoint, 34 MB)
Turns out, electricity and magnetism are related – so related that you can’t have one without the other. Learn about the interplay between electricity and magnetism, from the earliest understandings hundreds of years ago to the latest research on the continuing mysteries.
Speaker: Greg Boebinger, director, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnets: From Mini to Mighty (PowerPoint, 18 MB)
There’s a lot more to magnets than you think. This talk features a rundown of magnet types, uses and strengths, explained in a way that will help make the facts stick.
Speaker: Mark Bird, director, Magnet Science & Technology group
What’s So Super about Superconductivity? (PowerPoint, 3.1 MB)
From MRI machines to high field magnets, this “frictionless electricity” is changing our world. Learn about the physics and potential applications of superconductivity.
Speaker: David Larbalestier, director, Applied Superconductivity Center
The Pull of High-Field Magnets
Learn why more than 900 scientists from around the world visit the Mag Lab each year – and what they hope to discover while they are here.
Speaker: Eric Palm, director, DC Field User Program
More on Open House
Every year the Open House offers an up-close look at our record-breaking 45-tesla hybrid magnet, our 900-megahertz superconducting magnet and other powerful research instruments. Booths line the hallways of our 330,000 square-foot facility, featuring explanations and activities related to physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences. Dozens of other science-related organizations from the area participate in the Open House, including the Tallahassee Museum and the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory.
With some of the cool demonstrations, our Open House can almost seem like a magic show. But these are no tricks! Here are just a few of the stranger-than-science-fiction displays you can see at our next Open House:
- Gooey liquid oxygen that defies gravity, “dripping up” to meet a magnet.
- A Van de Graaff generator that will give you a dose of static electricity – and a really rad hair day.
- Magnets that fall in super slow motion, thanks to eddy currents.
- A train that moves without touching the tracks, thanks to superconductivity.
- A cannon that demonstrates the power of pressure . . . by firing potatoes.
- Super-magnified images of everyday objects as you've never seen them.
- A chance to see what comets are made of – by cooking them up!
- The wildly popular Shrinking Quarter machine, which uses a single shot pulse magnet to shrink a quarter to about the size of a dime.
With information and activities targeting a variety of ages, this event has become a popular family outing and is a unique opportunity to show children how fun – yes, fun! – science can be.
For more information contact Susan Ray at sray@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 644-9651.
