Physics on tour

As the summer festival season begins in earnest many are gearing up for weekends full of music, damp tents, expensive beer in plastic cups and of course, mud – but are they ready for the latest festival trend – physics?

The Institute of Physics thinks that they are as it sends a team of physics buskers to various festivals this summer to challenge festival-goers’ perceptions of the subject.
“It’s brilliant working with the festival goers because they are really interested in what we are doing and want to find out more,” said Liz Jeavans, outreach officer at the Institute of Physics. “What is really satisfying is when you show someone a trick, and they relate it to something they have come across in everyday life - but just hadn’t thought of it as physics before.”
The team will perform physics tricks and hand-held demonstrations using things you can find at home. The festival-goers will also be encouraged to find out how to do the tricks themselves and give on-the-spot performances to their friends and families.
But the team say that the tricks are not just for young children, and they will be making every effort to get adults involved as well.
“We know that once adults have a go at the tricks, they’re hooked and go on to tell their friends about them. This really helps us in our aim of taking physics to people who wouldn’t actively seek it out,” said Caitlin Watson, the Institute’s physics in society manager.
And for those festival-goers who can’t get enough, all the tricks performed by the team, including making balloon kebabs, launching Alka Seltzer rockets or turning pints of water upside down over a friend’s head without drenching them, are available on www.physics.org with full explanations.
The buskers will be heading for the Bradford Mela and Highland Games in July, before a final performance at the Green Man Festival in August.