VisuApps
Iconic exhibits of the Deutsches Museum as interactive, hands-on 3D experiments.
Apps
The first automobile as a 3D model: vehicle, cut-open engine and exploded view. The four strokes run with a p-V diagram, a flywheel slider shows why the engine stalls without mass, the belt switches between idle and drive, a map follows Bertha Benz's 1888 drive.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
From hammer and pick to shearer loader: shaft, adit, ventilation and drainage in a rock section, with a ride down.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
The electron jumps between quantized orbits (Eₙ = −13,6 eV·Z²/n²); on a downward jump a photon is emitted and the corresponding spectral line lights up in the emission spectrum (Lyman/Balmer/Paschen). Hydrogen or He⁺.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Tones made visible: a vibrating metal plate (square or circle) arranges scattered sand into delicate eigenmode patterns along the nodal lines. Adjust the frequency, find resonances — finer patterns at higher modes.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
A running cutaway model: glass cylinder with piston, crosshead, connecting rod, slide valve and a large spoked flywheel — driven via the slider crank. Steam supply and load adjustable; Watt's centrifugal governor holds the speed automatically (feedback). Steam plumes on the exhaust beat.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Rudolf Diesel's test engine in section: a compression-ratio slider shows temperature and pressure at the end of compression until the injected fuel ignites by itself. Comparison with the Otto engine in p-V and T-s diagrams, efficiencies, measurements from 1897.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
The proof of Earth's rotation: the pendulum keeps its plane of swing fixed in space while the Earth turns away beneath it. Latitude and time-lapse adjustable (15°/h · sin φ); a ring of pegs and the traced rosette make the rotation visible.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
The lightning demonstration of the Deutsches Museum: a branching arc jumps from the toroid electrode. Voltage and spark gap control the breakdown (E = U/d from ~3 kV/mm); the Faraday cage protects the presenter — without the cage they get "struck".
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Hahn and Strassmann's work bench as a reconstruction: irradiate, separate chemically, measure. In the nucleus uranium-235 splits according to the liquid-drop model, a mass-defect calculator shows where the energy comes from, plus chain reaction with moderator and Lise Meitner's interpretation.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
A fast-spinning top does not topple but precesses: gravity creates a torque τ that turns the angular momentum L sideways (Ω = m·g·r/(I·ω)). Spin and tilt adjustable, the L and τ vectors and the precession circle visible — the basis of the gyrocompass and inertial navigation.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Normal soaring apparatus of 1894: fly centre of gravity, profile and glide ratio yourself, up to the 1896 crash.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Guericke's experiment of 1657: pump out the air, let horses pull and calculate the holding force of air pressure.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
White light splits into its colors in the glass prism — true ray tracing with Snell's refraction and a wavelength-dependent refractive index (dispersion). Material (glass/water/diamond) and angle of incidence adjustable; a second prism recombines the colors back into white.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
The dynamo-electric principle of 1866: how the machine excites itself from residual magnetism.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Heat becomes motion: a running cutaway model of a Stirling engine with a hot and a cold side, displacer and power piston 90° out of phase. The gas visibly migrates between hot (glowing) and cold (cooling fins); a live p-V diagram shows the cycle. Temperature difference and speed adjustable (Carnot efficiency).
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Germany's first submarine of 1906: flood the ballast tanks, hover with the regulating tank, feel pressure and depth.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
A mechanical watch movement to take apart: balance wheel and hairspring set the beat, the Swiss lever escapement releases the mainspring energy in portions. Escapement cycle in slow motion and steps, spring tension and amplitude, gear ratios with proof.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Waves on a model: a wave maker generates waves that travel over a rising bottom toward the beach. Via the dispersion relation ω²=gk·tanh(kh) they grow shorter, slower and higher in shallow water (shoaling) — until they break (surf). Wave period, amplitude and water depth adjustable.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Lift made visible: smoke streamlines flow around an airfoil profile (exact Joukowski potential flow). Above the wing they crowd together — the air speeds up, the pressure drops (Bernoulli). Adjust the angle of attack up to stall, with lift coefficient and lift arrow live.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
The first projection planetarium of 1923: dome, projector and the 2027 Mars loop in the artificial sky.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try it
Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first working program-controlled computer: memory, arithmetic unit, console and punched film. A relay in close-up switches, then a floating-point addition runs bit by bit: align exponents, add mantissas, normalise — with your own numbers.
Physics experiments (Deutsches Museum)Try itWant to use these apps in your courses? Let’s find out what works for you.
One form, three matters. We answer personally.
We show heyprof on your own material. Tell us what you teach and we will prepare the conversation around it.