Gravity Demonstration at FSU: Watermelons and Pumpkins to Plummet from the "Leaning Tower of Keen"

October 13, 1999

Contact:
Kathy Hedick, (850) 644-6392
or Janet Patten, (850) 644-9651

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – This new yearly event celebrates the topic of "mechanics" in introductory physics classes and translates into the dropping of watermelons and other fruits from a high location in a demonstration of Newton's Law of gravity and related principles. The chosen site for this inaugural event is the 7th floor balcony of the FSU Physics Building, fondly referred to for this event as the "Leaning Tower of Keen."

Various University and community leaders will be participating, as well as middle school and undergraduate students. This fun and interesting event is a prelude to the 6th Annual Open House of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to be held the following day on Saturday, October 23rd, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Magnet Lab in Innovation Park.

Background

Every fall a new group of college students are introduced to the fundamental laws of physics. As they page through the first few chapters of text, they encounter portraits, diagrams, and concepts that cover over 2,000 years of human inquiry. Although Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Copernicus figure prominently, the work of Galileo and Newton form the topics of their first homework assignments.

Galileo, who died the year that Newton was born, is alleged to have dropped different size objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa and observed that they fell at the same rate. Newton put into concise terms what Galileo had observed that the gravitational mass was equal to the inertial mass. Meaning that an apple and a watermelon when dropped from the same height of a building will accelerate downward at the same rate striking the sidewalk below simultaneously, even though the watermelon weighs many times more than the apple. Finally Newton's Law for a rapid change in momentum comes into play when the fruit is suddenly stopped at the sidewalk, resulting in a dynamic display of fruit salad.

On the next day, at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's Open House, the public can experience another impressive force of nature: magnetism. High magnetic fields, in the realm of British physicist James Clerk Maxwell and company, can be used to cancel the force of gravity.