It's June, the academic year is over, it's time to celebrate! For those of you mad about physics or graduating with a physics degree at any level, how about a physics-themed party? We've compiled a few ideas below, but feel free to get creative and let us know your ideas in the comments. The world has far too few physics parties.
Happy June and Happy Physics!
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By Tamela Maciel, also known as "pendulum"
Top image credit: Shaun Fisher via Flickr
Decorations
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Credit: Marvin via Flickr |
- Scatter some chalk boards covered in equations around the room (or make your own with black paper and a silver sharpie). Better yet, leave the most famous equations half blank and challenge your guests to complete them.
- Red, green, and blue balloons can be quarks of different colors. Balloons are also great for creating static electricity, and demonstrating buoyancy (if some are filled with helium and some with air).
- Lava lamps to demonstrate buoyancy (or make your own!)
- Black lights give off ultraviolet light and cause phosphor-containing objects to glow. These objects include white t-shirts, teeth, fingernails, and tonic water.
- Glow sticks.
- Place heavy objects on a trampoline to demonstrate the curvature of space and time.
- If the party is outside, hang CDs in the trees and let them diffract light from the sun.
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Credit: Wicker Paradise via Flickr |
Food
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Credit: Galaxy Zoo blog |
- Make a black hole cake complete with accretion disk, high-energy jets, and clouds of ionized gas. For further cake inspiration, check out this amazing spacetime cake made by Physics Buzz bloggers last year.
- Serve alongside homemade liquid nitrogen ice cream.
- Pi pie!
- Bowls of mixed nuts to demonstrate the Brazil nut effect.
- Radioactive cupcakes.
- String cheese theory.
- Bobbing for Newton's apple.
- Jello for a substance that spans the range from liquid to solid.
- If it's a party for adults, serve beer with different amounts of head (for example, Guinness vs ale) and note how the foam dampens sloshing.
- And so on. Let us know if you come up with more ideas!
Games
- Make a tub of non-Newtonian oobleck out of cornstarch and water. It's a solid if you jump on it and a liquid if you stop.
Credit: Tamela Maciel |
- Play the Heads Up/Post-It/Who Am I game with a physics twist. Write the names of famous physicists on post-its and stick them to people's foreheads. The player has to guess who they are based on the answers to yes-or-no questions.
- Play Cards Against Science.
- Have guests compete to complete the equations you've left partially blank on your chalkboards.
- Create color-mixed dancing silhouettes with spotlights and colored filters.
- Bocce ball, croquet, or pool billiards are all great games to demonstrate conservation of momentum.
- See who can make the best water rocket.
- Turn your smartphone into a spectrometer or accelerometer and do some science.
Music
- The amazing and nerdy "AstroCappella" music of The Chromatics. Check out their Sun Song, Doppler Shifting, and Cosmic Radio Show songs.
- Strum a guitar to demonstrate how strings vibrate.
- Not strictly physics, but the Elements Song by Tom Lehrer is always sure to draw a crowd. Especially if you can sing it from memory!
- More physics songs and lyrics are available from Walter Smith's archive at Haverford College.
Happy June and Happy Physics!
--
By Tamela Maciel, also known as "pendulum"
Top image credit: Shaun Fisher via Flickr
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ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU for compiling these ideas! My son wants a physics party for his 8th birthday and (shockingly!) there aren't many online resources! ;)
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