FAU Hosts Ninth Annual Pumpkin Drop & Physics Carnival

Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Physics and the FAU Physics and Astronomy Club in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science will host its annual pumpkin drop on Friday, Oct. 30 at 10 a.m. The event will be held on the lawns south and west of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science building (SE 43), 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus.

FAU physics professors will drop both hollow and filled pumpkins from the roof of the building to demonstrate common physics’ principles, such as constant acceleration of gravity, terminal velocity and Newton’s Laws.

Robin Jordan, Ph.D., a physics professor at FAU, will make a special appearance as “Sir Isaac Newton” to explain the theories behind these principles.

Following the pumpkin drop, graduate and undergraduate physics students will host a physics carnival at 10:30 a.m. for middle school students. There will be games, face painting, drones and a dunk tank.

For more information, contact Mary Beth Mudrick at mmudric1@fau.edu.