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Spooky Science

October 13, 2016

Spooky Science At The Leonardo

SPOOKY SCIENCE

A little science can go a long way in explaining the spooky and the scary. Scary things aren’t always as scary as they seem. Use Spooky Science to shine a light on some of the creepiest, crawliest things imaginable — ghosts, monsters and more!

Our SPOOKY SCIENCE exhibit will only be displayed through the month of October.  Don’t miss out! Bring the whole family and come experience the science behind fear and fright.

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GHOST STORY

History of “The Ghost Frequency”

One night, researcher Vic Tandy was working very late, alone in his lab. He started feeling very anxious and had a strange sensation that he wasn’t alone in the lab. From the corner of his eye, Tandy saw a moving gray cloud that disappeared as soon as he turned around. The vision scared Tandy enough to hurry home and not return until it was daytime.

The next day, Tandy returned to the lab. One of his hobbies was fencing and he busied himself doing some work on his fencing sword, with the handle held in a vice. Although there was nothing touching it, the blade suddenly started to vibrate wildly, terrifying Tandy.

Tandy could have convinced himself that he was working in a truly haunted laboratory and run out the door, but the scientist in him had a realization. The movement of the foil looked similar to that of a sound wave – perhaps there was a sound that he couldn’t hear that was causing vibrations in the room!

After some exploration and a quick conversation with the lab’s facilities engineer, Tandy discovered a newly installed fan in the lab was emitting a frequency of 18.98 Hz – a low, rumbly tone that humans can barely hear. Coincidentally, 18.98 is very close to the frequency at which the human eye is thought to vibrate. Tandy deduced that the ghostly figure he had seen the night before was an optical illusion caused by his eyes being affected by the sound waves. Tandy investigated this phenomenon further and later wrote a paper entitled “The Ghost in the Machine.”

 

Come discover more stories like this one that will have your imaginations turned upside down and the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

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