Physics Force

This article appeared in the June 2, 1999 issue of the Star Tribune

The Force is with Them

A group of professors and high school teachers has taken its repertoire of science demos on the road, amazing audiences with the laws of physics.

Jill Burcum; Staff Writer

People in show business would say that the Physics Force plays some tough gigs. For the past 15 years, this small band of University of Minnesota physicists and Twin Cities high school physics teachers has regularly left the lab and classroom and traveled across the state--sometimes around the country and the world --to put on diverting but educational shows that acquaint students with this branch of science.

One of a handful of such groups in the nation, the Physics Force plays to some reluctant, even resistant, crowds: Often it's junior high students with an attitude or fidgety elementary school kids. Adding to the challenge is the group's mission of making physics not only palatable but interesting. And did we mention that they don't get paid?

But hearts of troubadours beat beneath their pocket protectors. Despite the time that it takes to conceive and produce the shows, to perfect the demonstrations and to overcome the audiences' skepticism or indifference, the members of the Physics Force love the smell of greasepaint and the roar of the crowd. Helping students conquer physics phobia is rewarding, they say, and even a blast _ sometimes literally.

"When you get a whole auditorium of people rockin', and you're doing physics, it's great. It just doesn't get any better,'' said Hank Ryan, a Mounds View High School physics teacher and one of the group's original members.

A tough crowd

Ryan's enthusiasm, and that of other group members, is clear during a recent performance at Wayzata West Middle School.

The day is warm and the end of school is near. Inside the darkened auditorium are about 500 uncomfortable and restless junior high students. They are clearly not impressed by the assorted equipment set up by Ryan and Jon Barber, a former Mounds View High School physics teacher and another original Physics Force member.

"This oughtta be good,'' says one teen sarcastically as teachers struggle to shush the crowd so Barber and Ryan can begin.

Although the group, which has about 15 members, puts on about six big performances each year, Barber and Ryan also take a two-man show on the road. Today is one such performance.

Their years of performing have taught them a great deal: They know that the show has to hook students quickly; it has to get naysayers involved, and then it has to move at a brisk pace.

"There can't be any gaps,'' Barber said.

As the crowd finally quiets down, an overhead screen flashes on. Ryan and Barber tell students to stare at an apparently random pattern of splotches and dots. The students are underwhelmed.

After a minute passes, Ryan and Barber tell students to look away. As Ryan explains the concept of retinal fatigue, the eyes of the students who stared at the pattern produce a reverse image of the pattern. What they see is the Mona Lisa.

Those who didn't stare at the pattern don't see it. And they feel left out --a situation no junior high student wants to be in, Barber said. For the rest of the act, attention is rapt.

And it's well-deserved. Ryan and Barber move quickly from demonstration to demonstration, deftly blending basic physics with audience participation and a dash of toilet humor: To illustrate conductivity, Ryan and Barber bring in two toilet seats _ one made of aluminum and the other of wood _ both immersed in a bucket of ice water.

The wooden toilet seat is wiped off and placed on a table. One of the teachers is handed a magazine and asked to sit on it. It's cold, of course, but not nearly as cold as the next thing he's asked to sit on _ the aluminum toilet seat. The crowd cheers as the teacher sits down with a start. Ryan and Barber take the opportunity to explain why metal is a better conductor than wood. Murmurs of appreciation follow.

With the aid of a roll of toilet paper, a leaf blower and other props, the next set of demos explore the theme of air pressure. Consider, for example, the grand finale. Ryan and Barber roll out a 55-gallon drum that contains boiling water. When they cap off the barrel and cool it rapidly, the pressure inside must decrease as the temperature and density of the steam decrease. Outside pressure overwhelms the barrel and it implodes with a bang.

Cheers follow.

As students file out, a boy walks by Ryan and Barber and delivers the ultimate teenage compliment. "That was so cool," he says before disappearing into the crowd.

Visions of `Cool!'

That's exactly what Ryan and Barber and other Physics Force members were hoping for when the group started about 15 years ago.

Now an official part of the University of Minnesota's outreach program, the Physics Force was, for most of its existence, simply a group of people who wanted to encourage interest in a field that, to the uninitiated, can seem dense and intimidating.

In 1983, Ryan and Barber met up with Phil Johnson of the University of Minnesota at a convention of physics teachers in Baltimore, Md. Johnson, who died in 1995, was the physics department's lab-demonstration coordinator.

According to Ryan and Barber, Johnson felt strongly that students needed to experience the wonders of science before they went to college. And the younger the students, the better-- one of the reasons the Physics Force gravitates toward junior high and elementary kids. And given his day job, Johnson had some good ideas about experiments that might intrigue students as well as educate them. Ryan and Barber were on the same wavelength.

Back in Minneapolis, the group got together again, recruited some colleagues and started thinking about how to put their theories into practice. About a year later, the ad hoc group, composed of professors and teachers, put on its first show at the university's Tate Hall. The Physics Force was born. (Members aren't certain about the origin of the name.)

Originally, Barber said, the group thought it would perform only a few times. But after seeing the enthusiasm generated by the performances, the group stayed together and continued developing its repertoire. The demos performed by Ryan and Barber in Wayzata were culled from years of experience. By now, Physics Force members say, they know what works and what doesn't.

Although the group is continually updating its performances, many of the demonstrations still in use were Johnson's idea, said Dan Dahlberg, a physics professor at the university. Johnson "was the real spiritual leader of the group," Dahlberg said.

Johnson's death in 1995 almost put an end to the Physics Force. But because the group had become "ike family," it stayed together, Barber said.

A good thing it did, too, because the group's reputation has been spreading. In 1997, the German television version of "Newton's Apple" asked the group to come to its studios and perform. A year later, it renewed the invitation. The group also has performed several times at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla. In addition, it does private performances, and it has even played at the bar mitzvah of a young science whiz.

"It's been a lot of fun," said Ryan.

With its official university-outreach status, the group now has the means to recruit a new generation of Physics Force members. In fact, a second troupe is forming, which, Ryan and Barber say, will help meet the demand for performances and inject some fresh ideas.

Although the group still misses Johnson's guidance, Dahlberg said the cofounder would be proud of how much it has accomplished. He'd especially enjoy the semi-star status that Dahlberg has enjoyed among students in the university's physics department.

"A number of students have stopped me and said `Hey, I know you. You were in those shows,'" Dahlberg said.

"That's really neat."

For more information about the Physics Force, contact Dan Dahlberg at 612-624-3506. He can also be reached by email at dand@physics.spa.umn.edu.

 

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