Featured Article

by: Robert Hummel

The annual physics trip to Six Flags Great Adventure theme park is back after its short hiatus last year. The physics students and Mr. Dempsey will be going to Great Adventure on May 11th to analyze the physics of the rides there.
Why the year-long gap? According to Mr. Dempsey, there were a lot of factors to consider when seeing if this physics trip was worth it.

Firstly, it comes down to attendance, with about 45 students out of 75 opting to attend this year and slightly less last year. Mr. Dempsey mentioned the “50% point” of attendance. Once it goes below that, “you have to consider if all the expense, effort, and time is worth it,” Mr. Dempsey said.

Secondly, the FBLA trip to Six Flags for the business day was earlier in the same week. So, the students involved in FBLA and physics would go twice to the theme park in a very short period of time. Mr. Dempsey said, “It did not endear me to my fellow staff members.”

The actual physics of the physics day trip was called into question when the rides that were good for demonstrations began disappearing. “They shift the rides over time,” Dempsey explained. “They got rid of some of my favorite rides. Rides that move in one direction, or one plane.” These were the best for demonstrations among first-year physics students. Among those that got chopped were the swing ride, Free Fall, and Taz’s Twister. “The twister was pure, perfect circular motion.”

The trip had a lot of problems and discrepancies over the physics of physics day. Luckily for this years’ students, most of the problems have been since resolved. The Park has updated the packet of problems to do for physics day to include its newer rides like Kingda Ka. Mr. Dempsey said that, aside from annotating problems slightly to make them clearer to students, it serves its purpose well.
Also – with the cuts in funding, FBLA is no longer a club offering here. Aside from the business implications of its discontinuation, it upset students that were looking forward to Great Adventure as well. “A lot of students really wanted to go,” Dempsey said.

The hardest part of physics day is “trying to get good work out of the students,” said Mr. Dempsey. “Some thoughtful students go on the rides and think of physics.” Others use it as an excuse to go to an amusement park, nothing more. “You can learn force, acceleration, circular potion, periodic motion, and frequency on a tabletop…but where do you, physically, get to experience it?” It is an opportunity Mr. Dempsey did not want to take away from the students that would benefit.

Physics teachers across the state have all struggled with whether a physics day at Six Flags is worth the trouble. Although Dempsey did admit that attendance is always a problem and that he wishes a NASA aerospace training center was closer, Great Adventure is still the best available option.