November 18th, 2005 witnessed an explosive show at Foster Elementary School. It was the SPS hosted Physics is Phun show with explosions on stage and from the crowd. That Friday, SPS members Larry Camarota, Chris Cook, Amruta Deshpande, and volunteer Joe Gleason mounted the physics van with a mission to show students of grade 4 and 5 at Foster Elementary, how cool physics can be.
Empowered by John Mocko's demos and training, the journey began. Chris balanced the generator on his lap and all braced for a bumpy van ride. Larry tended to the demos and promised to scream bloody murder if anything would happen to them. Joe wondered if his rocket would work, as his 3 test runs had each failed. Would the demos make it to the school all right? Would the students like them?
BOY did they like 'em! From the simple demonstration of the difference between AC and DC current to the shocking display of electrostatics with the Van de Graff generator, the kids went crazy. They oohed as they saw charge direction oriented diodes both lit up under AC current. They jumped when the little ball on top of the basketball soared after the pair bounced off the floor. They oohed some more when swinging tubes produced sounds of different pitches and the closed can with the rubber band inside rolled back.
What really got them going was the Van de Graff generator as Chris took hit after hit of electric charge on his hand. Some explained to themselves why peanuts popping atop the generator stopped as a metal wand approached the generator. A most impressive stunt was shaving cream that expanded to more than 4 times its volume as Larry sucked air out of the chamber where it was held. Joe's coke-bottle-rocket exploded flawlessly in a flash. The crowd marveled at the sight of a banana hammering a nail into wood (it was frozen by liquid N2). Granted it was hammered into balsa wood, but that fact remained a secret.
The showstopper was the air cannon. An air cannon shoots out a ring of air that whomps anything in its path. When each section of the crowd had been whomped several times over, a bit of smoke was put inside the canon, which then shot out smoke rings against an already swirling background. It made an excellent finale!
After the finale, eager fans engulfed the stage-front to take home memoirs and talk to the show hosts. They asked for the frozen banana, or to be hit one more time with the air canon. When the auditorium was evacuated, we looked for damages like a seared ceiling curtain or something. Luckily nothing was burned, but a speaker was continually buzzing. Apparently the generator had charged it up. It touched metal, got discharged and became quiet again. Whew - an excellent discovery.
With nothing burnt or broken we headed back to the van, happy and proud. The show was a hit, and we'd raised much curiosity. Ms. Brady, the science teacher, told us that she'd get lots of questions as they were beginning related material. What a fun way to spread some scientific curiosity! We four celebrated a job well done with a meal from Jeff's NY deli.
