CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ladies and gentlemen! Step right up and discover the secrets of science under the big top as Discovery Place introduces the museum's newest exhibit, "Circus!," opening Saturday, Dec. 13.

Featuring more than 20 multi-station, interactive exhibits, "Circus!" offers visitors a behind-the-big-top view of the science needed to make circus magic come to life.

Spectators become performers at "Circus!" and experience how the body responds to the sensation of height, balance and gravity. Aspiring daredevils can take a walk on The High Wire, an authentic, steel cable suspended nine feet in the air. The Balance Bar also allows for a unique experience to learn more about balance and the center of gravity. At this exhibit, guests can experiment with different balancing tools that demonstrate the secrets of rotational mechanics.

Families can go ballistic with the Human Cannonball and take aim at targets, shoot projectiles, and have fun learning about pneumatics, trajectories, physics and mathematics.

Visitors can feel as though they've truly run away to join the circus in the Creative Costume and Play Area. Younger children, along with family and friends, can try on a variety of costumes and role-play as a ringmaster, lion and bear. Performers-in-training can take to the center ring in Juggling and learn how to juggle and spin plates. Families can continue to clown around in Clown Alley, which tickles the imagination with facts on the science of giggling and laughter.

Parents and their mini gymnasts can strap on the Elastic Acrobatics harness and spring up into the air discovering what makes elastics stretch and how human bodies respond to thrills, chills and physical exertion.

The exhibition also explores the sights, smells and sounds of the circus. In Circus Smells, guests can take a whiff of distinctive circus aromas to learn the physiological reasons why scents trigger nostalgic memories.

During a visit to "Circus!" guests can learn about circus communication styles. After listening to a variety of animal sounds, museum-goers discover what researchers think animals are saying to each other in Animal Communication. Those looking to become fluent in circus chat can learn about the words and expressions used by generations of circus performers in Circus Lingo.

In Parade Remnants, kids learn the scoop on poop, matching artificial poop to the correct circus animal that left it behind including a large mound of elephant dung.

In Circus Music, visitors can create a soundtrack to accompany vignettes of circus performances, matching music to scenes of performing poodles, flying-trapeze aerialists and antics of a clown. Guests also can see the detailed work of a miniature Circus Model.

Those venturing into Sideshow can see a Ballyhoo Silhouette, a projected silhouette of a circus "talker," for some scientific truth mixed with a great deal of hyperbole. Strongmen, women and children can try to bend an iron bar attached to a dynamometer that measures brute force in Feats of Strength. Little ones can watch the littlest circus performers in Flea Circus. Finally, Sideshow explores the history, mystery, illusion and reality of sideshow performers and their remarkable talents, including how a person can swallow a 22-inch sword in Sword Swallower; how performers contort their body to fit into a small box in Contortionist; and how cyclist, Daredevil Diavolo (circa 1903), defied gravity and death in his sensational loop-the-loop stunt.

"Circus!" is on display through Friday, July 3, 2009, and is free with museum admission. For more information, call 704-372-6261, ext. 300, or visit discoveryplace.org.

Circus fun facts

Circus superstitions

* Never look back during a parade. (Some shows even fined those who transgressed.)

* Never whistle in the dressing room.

* Peacock feathers are considered bad luck.

* Elephants always must have their trunks up in pictures.

* Hair from an elephant tail is good luck and often made into rings or bracelets.

Human feats

* Joseph Greenstein (aka The Mighty Atom), a five-foot, four-inch, 148 lbs. strongman, could pull more than 21,000 lbs. with his hair.

* In 1982, 17-year-old Miguel Vazquez made circus history as the first trapeze artist to perform a quadruple back somersault, considered the hardest trick to perform on the flying trapeze.

* In the event of an emergency, circuses played John Phillip Sousa's march, "The Stars and Stripes Forever." It was the secret signal to summon all circus employees of an emergency.

Circus lingo

* Annie Oakley -- A complimentary ticket or free pass.

* Ballyhoo -- The spiel shouted in front of the sideshow to attract attention.

* Doniker -- A restroom.

* First of May -- A novice performer in his first season on a circus show.

* Floss -- Cotton candy

* Funambulist -- A rope walker. From Latin: "funis" (rope) and "ambulare" (to walk).

* Homy -- A man. A bona homy is a good man.

* Jill -- A girl.

* Joey -- A clown.

* Lot Lice -- Local townspeople who arrive early and stay late to watch the unloading of the circus.

* Picture gallery -- A tattooed man.

* Rubbermen -- The men who sell balloons.

* Zanies -- Clowns.

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