Expi - Hands on Science Center

Expi is a permanent exhibition of interactive science exhibits in Gotschuchen, a village in the Rosental valley in southern Kärnten. It stands about twenty kilometres south of Klagenfurt near the Slovenian border and opened in 2010. The centre is the first of its kind in the region.

The exhibition covers roughly four hundred square metres under cover and offers around fifty hands-on stations. Visitors can try out experiments on themes from physics and other sciences. Special temporary shows appear at intervals, such as the 2020 display about particles and atoms. Exhibits include a walk-in kaleidoscope, a table that makes objects disappear, a writing pendulum, a rotating mirror, a room that plays with scale, and a touchable vortex of fog.

Among the larger pieces is a four-metre-high model of a tribar, an impossible triangle with three right angles. A walk-in Ames room and a five-sided kaleidoscope are also on show, along with a two-and-a-half-metre tornado that appears at the press of a button. Historical experiments like Foucault’s pendulum and the Magdeburg hemispheres sit beside modern displays such as a spark chamber for cosmic rays and a diffusion cloud chamber for radioactive tracks.