On the evening of November 2 the Physics Department and Yale Pathways to Science hosted a “Haunted Hallway and Demonstration Show” at Sloane Physics Laboratory.
Around 300 people attended the event. For the first hour, people could walk the “haunted” hallways and classrooms to see several different scientific phenomena explained by volunteers. Demonstrations covered topics of superconductivity, standing waves, angular momentum, color mixing, UV fluorescence, light polarization, unusual musical instruments and sound makers, materials under extreme cold and low pressure, radioactivity, Tesla coils and plasma balls .
Eduardo Castro Munoz, graduate student in physics, ran a demonstration that illustrated the principles of electrostatics using fly sticks. Castro Munoz said, “I had a great time sharing some science with young members of the New Haven community and their families! …
The metallic foil shapes, charged by the device, floated and danced around in the air, capturing the public’s attention and making the science behind static electricity engaging and accessible for people of all ages and previous exposure to science.” The evening also featured a demonstration show called “Raising Gibbs’ Ghost”, written by Emily Pottebaum, graduate student in physics and a member of Yale’s Wright Lab. ,Pottebaum explained “The show got off to an explosive start with a ‘self-carving’ pumpkin to set the mood. The audience was then taken on a demo-filled journey, which, included a Frankenstein mask, fire tornado, and a swing held up only by atmospheric pressure, to summon, trap, and banish the ghost of physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs.”
Pottebaum continued, “We had an awesome audience who went right along with our shenanigans. It was a lot of fun! I only hope the ghost of Gibbs isn’t still wandering these halls…”.
The event was organized by the Yale Physics instructional support team Stephen Irons, Paul Noel, and Caitlin Hansen with the support of Rick Crouse and Maria Parente from Yale Pathways to Science. We would also like to thank the volunteers without whom this event could not have happened. Those affiliated with Physics were Xiran Bai, Eduardo Castro Munoz, Katie Chang, William Chang, Harper Cho, Allison Culbert, Halona Dantes, Morgan Knuesel, Wyatt Kremer, Claire Laffan, Elias Leventhal, Julia Levy, Charles Lomba, Andy Ma, Elly Maldur, Kylie Mirra, Chin Yuan Ong, Xiaowei Ou, Gregory Penn, Emily Pottebaum, Daniel Qenani, Katherine Schilling, Andrew Tamis, Sanjana Taneja, and Aidan Wilber-Gauthier. Those from Pathways to Science were Gabriella Cohen, Mallory Lester, Adriene D. Martinez (photography), Angel Martinez Acevedo, Edward Nguyen, Diego Suchenski Loustaunau, and Ghai Tit Tit.
See our flickr album for photos from the event.