On January 26th, a group of students and instructors of the MSc-Program "Sports, Exercise and Human Performance" travelled to Essen for a visit to the exhibition "Erfahrungsfeld Phänomania". An extensive collection of practical experiments allowed the students to experience some fundamental physical phenomena and concepts hands-on.
Particularly relevant in the context of the module Motor Control and Learning were numerous experimental setups related to perception. These included a partial mirror that allowed two individuals to be morphed into one (see photo), a mirror-drawing task, postural stabilisation when faced with the illusion of self-motion, a swinging rock to experience weightlessness, spooky visual after-effects due to exposure to spinning patterns, and more. Other classical (bio-)mechanical experiments dealt with self-stabilisation (of a spinning bicycle wheel), moment of inertia (and its relation to rotation velocity), pendulum mechanics, resonance, and so on.