By Michelle Huang
A new club has just joined the line up of extracurricular activities available to the student body at East. Physics club, co-founded by Ailon, Muling, James Barr, Nafian, Matthew Fang, and Danica, offers anyone interested in the application of physics to fun, real-life events to join and face off in an “Olympic” -style friendly competition.
As co-founder Ailon put it, “The thought was, why don’t we try and scale it up? Let’s have a Physics Olympics that will include everyone who wants to participate and introduce more interesting events (like rocket launching competitions) and have more interesting prizes.”
Inspired by the activities of last year’s post-AP season, which was also set up as a “Physics Olympics,” the club has wasted no time working towards its goal of expanding. Shown above is the moment a water rocket was launched during only the second meeting of Physics Club.
You may have noticed the advertisements for Physics Club often are hand drawn portraits of Mr. Belling. Beyond being the advisor of the club, Mr. Belling also seems to be its unofficial face. This silly, laid-back type of advertising represents the atmosphere the co-founders help to cultivate.
“Our goal is to provide an environment for people to hone their skills with friends and build whatever fun things they can think of based on physics,” says Matthew Fang.
In addition, underclassmen or those who have not taken physics yet have nothing to fear. As Muling describes, “Despite the deceiving name, you don’t actually need a background in physics to participate in our activities. Physics Olympics is a test of building skills, and even AP students often miss how the principles of physics can be applied to improve their builds. There’s a lesson to be learned with every event!” This process of trial and error is essential to any science course, and Physics Club provides a great forum to practice this form of scientific thinking.
While the club has just started out, it has already gained a large amount of interest. Don’t be fooled by the Belling worship the posters seem to display, as physics club not only defies gravity, but also defies stigma.
Physics no doubt has a reputation for being a notoriously hard subject and with that comes a fair share of contempt from others. Co-founder Ailon has mentioned the negative image through which physics is often perceived and hopes to change the lens through which East views physics with the club’s exciting, hands-on approach.
As Ailon explains, “We hope not only to form a new schoolwide competition that will improve students’ understanding of basic physics principles, but also improve the image of physics among students in a fun and experimental way that hasn’t been tried here before…I am very excited to see what we can achieve together with this project; my hope is that we can get together and engage in something bigger than ourselves for the best science out there. I really hope people will look beyond the stigma and join us”.
So bring an apple tree and a Newton and come to the next Physics Club meeting! There are only four years one spends at East, so make each week count by going to the clubs you like best. Hope to see you there!