<i>Imagination Factory</i>

Nine-year-old Jacqueline looks up at an interactive exhibit which is one of dozens of hands-on exhibits, in 'Imagination Factory' an exhibition at Scienceworks that will have the gears of visitors' minds spinning with new ways to think about the mechanical world around them, in Melbourne on June 24. Imagination Factory will take visitors on an inventor's journey with the basic mechanical tools -- gears, pistons, wheels and pulleys -- and let them discover how seemingly simple devices can be used to create nifty inventions. Visitors are challenged to explore exhibits that use simple machines, such as a sculpture that spins using gears and a toy dog that jumps for a ball using cams. Other exhibits let visitors play rock-paper-scissors using electric circuits, operate a robotic arm using pneumatics and even lift a friend off the ground using pulleys and levers.Photo: AFP