Having Fun in the Vortex of Science

I tend to lag when it comes to visiting new and exciting things in Orange County. For example, it was only a year ago that I first saw the inside of Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Tsk, tsk. But 1999 has given me a dose of millennial fever, resulting in a renewed sense of exploration. So, I boarded my sturdy craft this week and headed for the new Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, about which there’s been considerable whoop-de-do since it opened Dec. 19.

I never claimed to be Mr. Wizard, scoring mostly in the B-minus range in high school. About the only scientific tenets I remember are that a watched pot never boils and that a clock moves slower in algebra class than in gym.

But my 90 minutes at the center turned into a celebration of one man’s ignorance, the likes of which may never be equaled. What I don’t know about science apparently can fill a two-story building at 2500 N. Main St.

I checked out a couple dozen exhibits and can honestly say I couldn’t have explained a single one before reading the texts. That’s not to say my field trip wasn’t full of fun things, such as lying on a bed of nails and not being gored to death. In repose and thinking deep thoughts, it was easy to picture an alternative career as an Eastern holy man.

The sign explained that when you lie on an entire bed of nails, “no single nail exerts enough pressure to puncture the skin.” However, if you took a single nail and put a steak on top of it, the nail would pierce the steak. The answer has something to do with gravity and distribution of force.

From there, it was a short hop over to the kalliroscope (today’s new word), which involved spinning a disc filled with liquid. The liquid forms unusual patterns and demonstrates the “fluid dynamics” in oceans and the atmosphere.

It was a logical progression from fluid dynamics to the water vortex exhibit, where I was reminded that in the Northern Hemisphere the vortex “naturally spins counter-clockwise, whereas in the Southern Hemisphere, vortices naturally swirl in a clockwise direction.”

I made a note to use the word “vortices” at least once a day.

I explored other things, like the catenary arch and the Bernoulli blower and a group of children building a Rube Goldberg-type contraption. I got the feeling I could come back in 2010 and they’d still be at it.

For someone like me, it’s hard to tour the center and not ask yourself where you were when this stuff was explained in school. I have vague recollections of teachers discussing the conflicting pulls of gravitational and centripetal force, but I suspect I was staring out the window at those moments.

Much of it had to do with conditioning. When I was a kid, science was for guys who couldn’t throw a ball or run without stumbling. And certainly not for the girls.

I hope those notions are changing, although on the morning I was there many more boys than girls were roaming the center.

The big picture, though, is that science comes alive at places like the center--such as an exhibit demonstrating propulsion and Newton’s Third Law of equal and opposite reactions. A succession of kids delighted in filling a bottle full of air, pulling it back against a hard surface and, in effect, launching it along a track.

Center officials say the place is designed for young and old and has drawn 1,000 visitors a day since opening. The morning I was there, youngsters dominated; I don’t remember seeing an adult who wasn’t tending to a child.

Which leads me to this tip for adults: Don’t expect the ambience of a library. Instead, think video arcade on Saturday afternoon. Or, the roller rink.

Perhaps the cacophony was merely the sound of young minds whirring.

I must admit, had it been my scientific mind at work, the place would have been dead silent.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com