15th Annual Halloween Pumpkin Drop to be Held at CSU, Chico
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2002
Jamie Coleman, Public Affairs Intern
530-898-4143
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
15th Annual Halloween Pumpkin Drop to be Held at CSU, Chico
Pumpkin pieces will fly when the Society of Physics Students (SPS) at California State University, Chico holds its 15th annual Pumpkin Drop on Thursday, Oct. 31, at noon on the south side of Butte Hall.
More than 500 students from local grade schools are expected to attend the experiment, which is a recreation of Galileo Galilei’s legendary Tower of Pisa Experiment. The experiment proves what is known as Galileo’s Law of Falling Bodies, that “all objects, regardless of their mass, fall toward Earth at the same rate.”
Legend has it that Galileo climbed to the top of the Tower of Pisa and simultaneously dropped a small ball and a large ball to see if they would hit the ground at the same time. He proved his theory when both landed at the same time.
SPS will not be using balls, but pumpkins, and other fruits and vegetables, to do the reenactment on Halloween. Each will be dropped in synchronization to the cannon blasts of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Additionally, SPS members will dress as Galileo and Aristotle, who, had he been alive when the experiment took place, would have been a skeptic.
For more information contact David Kagan, Department of Physics, 530-898-6259.
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