The Science of Smashing Pumpkins

JASON HALLEY/UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHER/CSU CHICO

PUMPKIN PULP: Students watch as pumpkins plummet to the ground.

ANGEL HURACHA/NSPR

LOOK OUT BELOW: Chico State faculty drop pumpkins from a 50-foot-tall lift.

This Halloween, Chico State, a university in California, will host its 35th annual Pumpkin Drop. The public event aims to teach kids about physics . . . by smashing about 227 kilograms (500 pounds) of pumpkins!

College students dress as famous physicists, like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Why? So they can introduce kids to these scientists’ theories about gravity, the force that pulls objects toward Earth (see Theories of Gravity, below). They test the scientists’ theories by standing on a raised platform and dropping pumpkins filled with things like feathers or water. They even set a pumpkin on fire! The Pumpkin Drop is meant to show kids that learning about physics can be fun, says Kendall Hall, a physicist who runs the event. 

ANGEL HURACHA/NSPR

MAKE LEARNING FUN: A Chico State student dressed as Albert Einstein

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