Friday, December 18, 2015

Haunted Physics lab

Anthony Pena

Valencia East Campus Haunted Physics lab



                                        Physics Professor Angela Cortez fixing up one of the labs






Halloween is that one time of year where we can experience many spooky things like haunted houses, horror movies, and scary stories from friends. Well, how about a combination of a haunted house and an interactive lab into one?  That's what physics professor Angela Cortes and her assistants Diane Saintvistal and Eddiel Suaret came up with.

 The first lab that many many people did was the Resonance bowl. You first need to get your hands wet, and you rub your hands against the railings of the bowl. This causes the bowl to make a vibration which makes the water splash out. However, many people had a hard time figuring out how to do. All you had to do was press down hard on the railings.
                           This is supposed to cause a vibration when you rub on the railings of the bowl


                                                               
                                                                    Neat Plasma Balls.     
                       
                                                          


 One of the labs I liked was the fish swimming in fire. It was basically an optical illusion that made it look like the fish was swimming under a candle. The way this one worked was that it involved a mirror that reflected on a candle which gave it an illusion pictured here.
                                                                    
This is an illusion that makes it look like the fish is swimming under fire.




 Another I looked at was the infinity mirror. it uses a two-way mirror and the lights give the illusion that the mirrors are going on. (http://lightenergystudio.com/infinitymain.html)

                                                         
                                                               The lights keep going.
                                                    


Angela Corte's lab assistants Diane Saintvistal and Eddiel Suaret were assigned the Haunted Lab as part of their science classes. "It was an assistantship that got offered to us, and we got to choose from different options," said Saintvistal. "I chose the haunted lab because I felt it would be more interactive and fun to do," stated Saintvistal.

 The assistants described that some of these effects used in the lab can be applied to attractions seen in theme parks like smoke and mirror effects. "They have them in like Disney rides like the ghost in The Haunted Mansion," said Saintvistal. "And also Halloween Horror nights in Universal with the laser lights during events to attract people and scare them."

As overwhelming as some of these experiments sound, some of these can be used can be used to make a  haunted house. Saintvistal says, " with this cup (holding up parts of the cup and string lab) you could make different sounds and some of the sounds sound creepy." This is supposed to make a ghost like sound. "The electricity I’m sure might scare somebody with the electric current." Suaret said.

Remember back in high school when you had to take a physics class? Remember having to do a lot of math in that class? The haunted physics lab is more about theory and having fun than that. "It’s more about theory, but physics in general does involve a lot of math, but preparing the event didn’t." said Saintvistal. "It’s about making physics fun for little kids. They don’t want to come here and be bogged down with math," said Suaret

When asked about what were the lab assistant's favorite lab Suaret stated, "The infinity mirror, that was pretty cool." Saintvistal has said she liked the fish swimming in fire. 

When asked about the plasma ball and how it made the lightbulb turn on Saintvistal stated ,"I think it creates an electric wave." Suaret added, "It’s the electricity, it’s already charged."

Sadly, one experiment could not make it to the haunted physics lab. "The Newtonian fluid. You were supposed to run across it but if you stand still you would sink." Suaret explained. Saintvistal added in "We would use it with cornstarch and water."

The final question that was asked was about what was the most popular lab. Both lab assistants said it was the plasma balls . As Suaret stated, "The plasma ball because it looks cool."





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