Touch Test

A pink and yellow exhibit table, with a blue, purple and white information panel on top, and a green and a blue wall sitting behind. On the table sits a box with a sloped top face that has five circular cut outs, that each have a different fabric.

Humans feel textures by moving their fingers across a surface to stimulate touch receptors.

How it works

Touch different textured patches and match them to hidden texture patches.

Things to try or ask around the exhibit

Can you match up texture patches without brushing your fingers over the texture patches?

Background

When we feel the texture of something, we tend to move our fingers back and forth, so sensory nerves within the skin can be stimulated to detect the type of texture being investigated.

Finding the science in your world

Skin on your fingers and lips tends to have more nerve endings or touch receptors, which makes these areas more touch-sensitive. Your back has fewer receptors, so it it is less touch-sensitive.