A day of stark contrasts. After a quick look at the bay of Cervantes, we headed back to the Pinnacles to see the visitor centre which was closed last night. While shedding some light, it told us that primarily the origin of the pinnacles is shrouded in controversy. Geologically speaking they are young, but geologists cannot agree on their cause. Perhaps they are an ancient petrified forest, but they are limestone and not opal, which would be more typical. Scientists believe they can see organic structures in them, and can explain a process whereby the limestone could be dissolved and set into these structures before resetting. There is however as yet no proof.
What is likely though is that the pinnacles were visible 6000 years ago, but have been covered up since by the shifting sands in this near-coastal setting. The Dutch records of exploration from the 1600s make no mention of them, although we believe they were in the area. So it is likely that they have been uncovered only recently, perhaps in the last few hundred years. If that is the case, then as time goes on probably more will be uncovered, perhaps revealing a secret.
From there we had some driving to do to head closer to Perth and our Gravitation Discovery Centre. To prepare for this we have been listening to Einstein’s Special and General Theory of Relativity in audio-book form. While the special theory is reasonably simply explained, we really needed to cover the general theory to introduce the problems of gravity for which we were preparing. As we had been a little bogged down (not surprisingly!) we still had some ground to cover, so our brains were pretty much mush on arrival.
The discovery centre is a commercial operation, and so melds scientific displays on gravity and more general fields, with technological displays from sponsors. Very publicly visible are the 40m high leaning tower from which you can repeat Galileo’s famed (or mythical?!?) light vs heavy object falling under gravity experiment, and the large Foucault pendulum slowly knocking down bowling pins through the day.
The typical “junk science” demonstrations of a Jacob’s ladder, Bernoulli’s demonstration of a ball held in a stream of air and magnetic levitation were all present. Less common items were a 1.2km audio waveguide transmission line made out of poly pipe, a cable used to demonstrate wave transmission more visibly, lumps of skylab and sizeable chunks of a meteorite. There was also a large gallery that deals with the crossover between science and the visual arts as its main theme.
In general it was a good idea let down in a number of areas. First of all most exhibits were numbered, but many lacked an explanation. Apparently a guide book was available, but I did not see it, nor was it offered to us. Secondly, many items were not working, and while some were marked as being out of order, others frustratingly had parts missing, or didn’t seem to work. Thirdly, a number of exhibits, specifically the large pendulums, needed a staff demonstrator, but none were forthcoming. For the amount of money we paid, these details should have been attended to.
The kids did however enjoy dropping water bomb balloons from the large 
tower into the sandpit to see whether acceleration due to gravity is indeed independent of mass. Let’s just say the degree of experimental uncertainty left them a little unconvinced, but it was fun!
And so on to Perth. Not a happy start so far, with our preferred caravan park in Fremantle being unavailable tonight. We’ll try again tomorrow, after spending a huge amount of money for a patch of dirt in the northern outskirts.
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