Event 2

For my second event, my roommate and I went to the Peterson Automotive Museum on Museum Row. From the Model 50 Traveler to the Ferrari 308 GTS Targa, this museum shoes the technological and social evolution of creating cars for getting to work and leisure to using assembly lines and mass production of sports cars for play and speed and others for artistic show with vibrant paint jobs and artistic accents.

This museum has about 150 vehicles on display. For example, we have the 1911 American Underslung Model 50 Fraveler with 50 HP and 4-cylinder, and T-head. The American Motor Car Company produced the first “underslung” automobile by mounting the chassis beneath the axles. The cars used extremely large tires to gain back some of the ground clearance lost by lowering the frame. Because the large tires helped the car pass over holes and rite, the American Underslung was ideal for fast touring over the unpaved roads of the day.

The ground floor displays a virtual history of the automobile in Los Angeles, complete with vintage vehicles and buildings. The third floor features the May Family Children's Discovery Center — an interactive exhibit where children can learn science through the workings of a car. The May Family Discovery Center consists of a variety of interactive learning stations, targeted to children ages 6 to 16, with the purpose of demonstrating basic principles that help reveal why a car works. 

Children can discover new insights into the scientific laws of motion, force, energy and mass distribution by using automotive components. I couldn’t take pictures, but the VroomRoom is an audio traffic jam, where visitors trigger infrared detectors that activate various automotive noises, demonstrating how sound travels. The Driver's Ed simulator replicates real-time driving situations including congested traffic, freeways and hazardous driving conditions. Additionally, there is a giant combustion engine where kids can become "human spark plugs" in an exhibit of large tires that discusses the laws of forces and motion - a "gravitram" that demonstrates the Newtonian physics principles of gravity and momentum. All of these interactive forms of learning bridge barriers such as age, nationality, and ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained’ thinkers because cars are an art for in and of themselves that are used by everyone.

Outside the museum is a wall of flags that you have to pass under to enter the building, which shows the continuity between cultures, car lovers, and art and robotics. Everyone can appreciate not only the functionality of vehicles, but also the strategically artistic ingenuity involved in creating fast, sleek, eco-friendly cars. It takes design teams and physicists and manufacturers to all contribute to one idea that is used by virtually everyone. Teaching this to children at a young age makes learning fun and all-inclusive, combining art, science, robotics, math, and technology.

This museum had the greatest influence in helping me understand the interplay between art and robotics because I could see how automobiles are not one or the other, but use both to design the model and both to physically create it. If you are a car lover, this museum is a must!