Water balloons and rolls of toilet paper being dropped from the observation deck of the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower last Tuesday morning weren’t early homecoming hijinks.
It was the Greene County High School physics class gathering data to practice calculating things people talk about in physics – average velocity, terminal velocity, and average rate of acceleration and such.
Teacher Launa Buxton explained that the students designed the experiment, determining which factors they’d measure and what they’d drop. Items included not only toilet paper and water balloons, but a foam ball and a basketball, playdough, bar soap, a Slinky, a paper airplane, and even a few bottles of soda. Students on the ground timed and recorded how long it took each of the objects to hit the ground, and the calculating began at school.
Buxton said the students would also use fluid dynamic computer applications to figure the effects of air resistance and to compare theoretical data and their own experimental data.
A Barbie doll is one item the students drop each year. GreeneCountyNewsOnline is sorry to report the flight didn’t go so well for Barbie this year. She was seemed happy enough on her way down, but lost her head when she hit the cement.
