ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Anna,

My guess, without seeing what you've got, is that you're not allowing a 
wide and/or long enough distribution. A 'nice' bell curve is going to 
require a lot of possible distribution paths. A mathematician or 
statistician - I'm not one - could tell you just how many you you would 
have to have to get a nice curve. Even at that, there is a certain 
amount of randomness that you would expect.. To me, this randomness is 
the most interesting attribute of the exhibit and not that it always 
works out 'perfectly.'

So, look at giving the balls more interactions as they fall and allow 
them to spread into a wider area. Seven might not be enough to give you 
the curve you're after, 15 would be better, 30 better still.

On the other side of the coin - the exhibit likely is working - you're 
not suggesting that the Ping-Pong ball is deifying the laws of physics 
are you? - It's just not working the way you expected!

Joe R
www.TheExhibitGuys.com

Anna Grace wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related 
> institutions.
> ***************************************************************************** 
>
>
> Help!  I've built a Plinko exhibit out of pegboard, dowel pegs, and 
> ping-pong balls, but I'm not getting the nice bell curve result I was 
> hoping for.  Any suggestions for why it's not working and/or how to 
> change it?
>
> Thanks,
> Anna
> --------------------
> Anna Grace
> Exhibit Coordinator
>
> Explorit Science Center
> 2801 2nd Street (Main Public Site)
> 3141 5th Street (Mace Park Branch)
> P.O. Box 1288 (mail address)
> Davis, CA 95617
> 530.756.0191
> fax 530.756.1227
> http://www.explorit.org
>
> We've expanded!  Explorit's public exhibit gallery has moved to our 
> new site along I-80 which opened on September 23 at 2801 2nd St..  
> Learn more about our Expanding the Explorit Experience project and 
> on-going capital campaign by visiting 
> http://www.explorit.org/expansion/index.html
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-- 
ÐÏࡱá


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