CSU, Chico News

The California State University, Chico chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) will hold its 14th annual pumpkin drop on Wednesday, Oct. 31, at noon on the south side of the Butte Hall roof.

The pumpkin drop will be a reenactment of Galileo Galilei’s historical experiment to prove his Law of Falling Bodies, which states, “All objects, regardless of their masses, fall toward the earth at the same rate.”

Although it is uncertain whether this experiment was ever actually performed, legend has it that Galileo dropped a large ball and a small ball from the Tower of Pisa in hopes they would both hit the ground at the same timeÑand they did. In the spirit of Halloween, the SPS will simulate this experiment, and others, with pumpkins.

To prove this theory, SPS chapter member, David Atkinson, will play Galileo, and Cory Poole, vice president for programs, will dress as Aristotle, who would have been a skeptic had he been alive to see the experiment. The pumpkins will be dropped in time to the cannon blasts of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.

Chico’s SPS has won 12 Outstanding Chapter awards from the national organization for its efforts in bringing science to the public in fun and exciting ways. David Kagan, Department of Physics chair, said, “Our department boasts an extremely active chapter of the SPS. They offer tutoring for physics students, provide prizes and judges for local science fairs and are famous for their large-scale public demonstrations of physics. The annual reenactment of Galileo’s Tower of Pisa Experiment, which they call the Pumpkin Drop, is viewed by hundreds of local school children. The point of the Pumpkin Drop, aside from demonstrating the Law of Falling Bodies, is to show that science is not dry and boring, but on the contrary, fun and exciting.”

For more information about the Pumpkin Drop, please contact David Kagan at 898-6259.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2001 at 10:06 am and is filed under 2001 Fall.