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Source: Standard-Examiner, Ogden, UtahOct.自存倉 03--OGDEN -- Weber State's Physics Department is putting on a Physics Open House Friday, open to 600 to 1,400 of its closest friends, including you.The seventh annual event is free, and runs 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday in the Lind Lecture Hall, home of the Ott Planetarium. Among the highlights are hands-on activity rooms with lasers and magnets, planetarium shows, multiple demonstrations, and a special guest to become part of a demonstration involving nails and a sledge hammer. If the 6 p.m. experiment goes as hoped, the special guest will survive for a second show at 8 p.m.WSU physics professors John Armstrong and Stacy Palen, who met at the University of Washington before taking jobs at Weber State, at first envisioned a modest gathering to show the general public what the department was up to."When we were still in Seattle, we suggested an open house in the astronomy program, and it was skeptically received," Armstrong said. "But we invited everyone, and in a city of 3 million people, we got a couple of hundred."So the two kept their expectations low when they moved themselves and their idea to Ogden, a city of 80,000."The first year, we were expecting about 40, and we got 1,400," Armstrong said. "We decided there must be some pent-up demand here for something like this."But a practical joke had saved the day."My friend sent an email saying he was going to show up with 600 to 700 Boy Scouts," Armstrong recalled. "We completely redesigned our plans and the space for full capacity, so we were in much better shape when the 1,400 people showed up."Minus the imaginary Boy Scouts, of course. After the first year, the number of annual attendees stabilized at about 600, Armstrong said.Professor Ron Galli will demonstrate physics through spinning objects and the mechanical cat he invented, which always lands on its feet.Faculty members Adam Johnston and Colin Inglefield will present their annual "Circus of Physics," full of dramatic demonstrations and using the aforementioned sledge hammer."It's the Adam and Colin show," Amini storagemstrong said. "Those guys should take in on the road. I wish they would."Faculty member Dan Schroeder will speak on the physics of music."And I will talk about asteroid impacts, why they will kill us, and why we should worry about it, and what we can still do," Armstrong said.Very young, nightmare-prone guests might want to skip Armstrong's speech in favor of outdoor displays and activities. The HARBOR program will be showing its data-collecting equipment, but weather will determine whether organizers will inflate a high-altitude balloon. The Science in the Park program will host children's activities, and physics students and professors plan to launch water balloons with a trebuchet, a device similar to a catapult. Planetarium shows will run every 30 minutes, with the last beginning at 8:30 p.m.A list of times, room numbers and activities will be available Friday evening at the Lind Lecture Hall, at the northeast end of the Weber State main campus, at 1551 Edvalson St. Visitors are encouraged to bring canned foods to the open house and race them down an inclined plane in soup-can races. After the event, all donated canned goods will be given to the Utah Food Bank."We always have different activities, and out student participation is getting better every year," Armstrong said. "This year, we even have one of our alumni students coming back to run a rocket demonstration. It really builds camaraderie in the department."It started as a way to showcase what we do in the physics department," he said. "But now instead of showing off what we do here, its more about having a good time with physics. We get a lot of families with kids, and its more about having fun that promoting the program. I see it as a way for us, in a very small way, to say 'Thank you, Ogden, for being so supportive.'"Contact reporter Nancy Van Valkenburg at 801-625-4275 or nvan@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @S_ENancyVanV.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) Visit the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) at .standard.net Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存