19th Annual Physics Demo Show

For the past 19 years, Doug Johnson has started the Fall quarter with a demo show.  Hector and I joined him when I came to work here at Cal Poly 4 years ago. Doug started this demo show to demonstrate the variety of demos we have, to show amazing demos and to intrigue students and teachers alike.

Doug demonstrating the Tesla Coil.

Demos we showed this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-trDF8Yldc
Ruler and Cart with Doug's ruller and cart
Demos from the Laser Disc Set
Hector's app on Ipad
Nano LIght stick and the question of the neutrino going faster than light
Kelvin Water Dropper
Electric Field Tank
Conductivity Of Solutions
Chemical Cell w oj
Current Swing
Light Bulb and Coil
Ring Toss with LN2
Tesla Coil
Surface Tension
Venturi Floating Balls
Falling bAll and Cup
Torque Bar
Driven Pendulum
Pendulum Bowling Ball
Happy Sad Pendulum
Ship on Floating Gas
Candles and Heavy Gas
SOund Lens with Heavy gas
Beaker Breaker Demo
Exploding Gas Can
Coin and Balloon


I will add photos later.

Physics Staff Day Variety Show

One June 16, 2010 we performed for the third year in a row at the Staff Day Talent Show. Most of the people sing, dance, do skits. I suppose you could call our talent a skit..

Doug has performed these before and I joined him when I started working here back in 2007. Doug is good to work with except that he has it in his mind that the demonstrations should be presented a certain way and when I suggest something.. he ho's and hum's and then goes back to his idea. I think he just wants me to affirm his decision but not come up with one on my own. Anyway, I worked on a project of my own from a video I had seen about optical illusions. It is made to be interactive.. I wish there was some kind of place where I could put interactive demos here at school. Maybe next year I will try to plan an interactive summer school field trip for the local camps to come and visit. We could also put a demo show on for them.

The demos we did this year:

1. Rotating platform w/ wieghts. (We had another performer volunteer to do this.)
2. Rotating platform w/ bicycle wheel. (again with audience participation)
3. Falling bottles and Keys
4. Balancing block on pipe
5. Range of hearing (I am not sure this one was too enjoyable)
6. Sound Horn Coupling
   
7. Speaker Diffraction (I think we actually nixed this one- can't remember)
8. Doppler Ball
   
9. Resonance Blocks (again too small for the audience to appreciate)
10. Resonance of wineglass (we nixed this one as well since it would take too much time to get the sound to come out just right)
11. Happy/Sad Pendulum (again too small for the large auditorium)
12. Rope and 3 Students (This worked well with audience participation)
13. Torque Bar (Again participant worked well)
14. Soup Can Race (Kind of small but they seemed to like it)
15. Floating Bowling Ball (Doug has a too long of a story for this one but it worked)
16. Optical Illusion Squares (This was the one I made but Doug overshadowed it by presenting optical illusions on the computer projector which some were hard to see. Oh well)
17. Flying Man Illusion (this one is really great and of course Doug had to do it- I don't think even if I ask would he let me do this one. He has a good story and even though you know for certain that his other leg is behind the mirror- your mind still thinks he is levitating.