Campers walk on water at APSU
APSU
Clarksville, TN – Last week, Bryan Gaither’s grocery list called for 150 pounds of cornstarch. When asked what he was doing, the Austin Peay State University (APSU) physics lab manager explained he wanted to get a group of campers to walk on water.
Austin Peay State University Department of Physics, Engineering and Astronomy graduate Jonathan Bunton, center, explains to Governor’s School students what’s happening with the corn starch-water mixture.
“We’re making what’s called a non-Newtonian fluid, where the particles lock together when you add force to them,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, a group of former APSU physics students mixed the cornstarch with water in a plastic baby pool, creating a strange liquid that students could walk quickly across.
Once the non-Newtonian fluid was ready, high school students participating in the Govs Outdoor Teen Camp and the Governor’s School for Computational Physics took off their shoes and socks and ran safely across the liquid.
If they stayed still, their feet sank into the muck.
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
You must be logged in to post a comment.