By Linda Tancs
At over 100,000 square feet, Wonders Center & Science Museum is the largest science museum in Tennessee. Located in Dickson (just 35 minutes from downtown Nashville), it features planetarium shows and interactive learning zones along with exhibits like the Wonders of Paleontology, Wonders of Africa and Amazing Animals of Alaska. One of its most popular highlights is undoubtedly the Tesla coil experience. Tesla coils were invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891 and are electrical transformers that take ordinary electrical current to produce a high voltage display. The museum has two Tesla coils, each capable of generating 500,000 volts for a total of 1,000,000 volts. This produces six to eight foot volts of lightning in the same room as the viewer, even lighting up signs in the room that are not plugged in. Advance ticket purchase is recommended.
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