If you’ve never seen a physicist break a cement block on his friend’s chest while lying on a bed of nails or if you’d like to see a physicist drop 20 feet through thin air while a friend shoots a ball at him from a cannon, the University of Minnesota Physics Force has a show for you.
The Physics Force will present its largest public show of the year at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19 at the University of Minnesota’s Northrop, 84 Church Street SE, Minneapolis. The cost is $3 and children under 10 are free. Registration is required at z.umn.edu/PhysicsForce19.
The show is a unique mix of physics demonstrations and slapstick humor suitable for adults and children of all ages. This year's shows are better than ever, with live fire, lightning, a crushing barrel, and more!
Watch highlights from last year’s shows.
The Physics Force is a successful and entertaining outreach program of the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering. Each year the group performs for more than 25,000 school-age kids at its annual week of daytime shows. Through spectacular demonstrations, the group shows that physics is fun, interesting and understandable.
The Physics Force consists of high school teachers and University of Minnesota physics professors. Over more than 30 years of shows, the group has performed variations of their show at Disney’s Epcot Center, on Newton’s Apple, and the Knoff-Hoff Show, a popular German television science program, and locally at various venues, including the Minnesota State Fair.
The Physics Force public shows include large-scale demonstrations that include dropping one of the performers from a 20-foot gantry while shooting a ball at him to demonstrate the effect of gravity on projectiles, collapsing a 55-gallon drum using only ambient air pressure, and one of the Physics Force members propelling across the stage on a cart by emptying a fire extinguisher to demonstrate how forces come in pairs.
For more information and a video preview of the demonstrations, visit z.umn.edu/physicsforcedemos.
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