Considering it was just last month, I’m sure most of you still remember our guest posts. But everyone seems to have the 3 second attention span of goldfish, so who knows? Well, we have another piece written by Alli Burness, who documents her travels around the world visiting museums at Museum in a Bottle (you can also find her on twitter @alli_burnie and of course tumblr). She wrote about the Berber Museum in Marrakech, but her recent visit to a museum in Ecuador intrigued me, so she wrote about the experience for this blog:
Finding the equator in Ecuador isn’t as straight forward as you’d think, yet curious phenomena can be experienced there. A tour through the Intinan Solar Museum near Quito starts with information about the Indigenous peoples of the country but quickly turns to strange equatorial effects, demonstrated on a neat, red line.
Strange types of sun dial only work on or near the equator and you can see a replica dried head. Water empties from a sink without swirling, eggs can be balanced on the head a nail and you feel less balanced when walking along the equatorial line (with your eyes closed). Which of these effects are real and which are ‘parlor tricks’? They’re hotly debated and I can’t say either way. Whether you’re precisely on the equator at all is another good question.
