Ah, the grand tradition of the South Carolina State Fair: watching cotton candy swirl in a tub, catching your breath at the top of the Ferris wheel, gathering data on inertia and acceleration.
Okay, so that last activity isn’t a tradition. But if members of the Department of Physics and Astronomy have their way, it will become one for middle- and high-school students. On Tuesday, nearly 5,000 students attended the department’s seventh-annual Midway Physics Day, an event that offers the unbeatable combination of fun, physics, and free fair tickets.
“There’s such a misconception about physics—that it’s difficult, that it’s boring. But it’s fun; you just have to take the right approach, and I think going out on the midway is the right approach,” said Dave Tedeschi, physics. “The event is a big project for our department. We have about 50 people involved, from faculty—including the ‘Midway Committee’ of Rudy Jones, Gary Blanpied, and me—to graduate and undergraduate students.”
Midway Physics Day was the brainchild of the late Richard Childers, physics. The first event was held in 1997 with about 1,500 students from about 30 schools participating. With other USC faculty now committed to the event, almost 5,000 students from 80 schools around the state participated Oct. 7.
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