Students gather at Lagoon for fun with physics

FARMINGTON — Lagoon transformed into a giant laboratory Friday.

More than 6,000 students from middle and high schools in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada gathered at the amusement park to take part in activities such as an egg drop and robotic sumo wrestling at Utah State University Physics Day.

"There's a real shortage of people who are interested in science and technology," said J.R. Dennison, a USU physics professor. "Somewhere along the way by the time they hit high school, science is not cool. So the biggest emphasis for Physics Day is to make science cool."

The event was a hit with participants, including Ryan Lipscomb, an eighth-grader at Churchill Junior High in Salt Lake City.

"It's really fun," he said.

For the egg drop, students constructed containers to protect an egg that they then used to bomb a target from the 60-foot-high Sky Ride that traverses the amusement park. The students were judged on how effective their container was at protecting the egg, as well as how close they got to the bull's-eye.

"It's well worth it to watch the eggs plummeting at you," Dennison said.

Katlyn Vwiygatr wasn't feeling too confident in her egg container while waiting in line for the Sky Ride.

"I think it's going to crack," said the eighth-grader from Thomas Edison Charter School South in Nibley, Cache County.

After dropping the egg and missing the target, she returned to the table to find her project. As she slowly peeled away the tape and plastic bags, onlookers groaned as she pulled out a yoke-filled jar of cotton balls.

For another project, students rode the Colossus roller coaster and used wrist accelerometers to measure G-forces — "how quickly your speed changes," Dennison explained — at eight points of the ride. The students then graphed their findings.

"It was hard to read (the accelerometers)," said Ashlyn Clapham, Lipscomb's classmate.

In addition to the fun and games, Physics Day offered students an opportunity to earn scholarships to USU.

More than 110,000 students have participated in the annual event since it began in 1990. During that time, more than $1 million in scholarships and prizes have been awarded to participants.

e-mail: ebassett@desnews.com