Physics video takes tiny trophy

Chalkey Horenstein
Voice Staff

     The Physics Club is now the owner of a trophy approximately two wavelengths of light across for the Physics Central NanoBowl People’s Choice Award.
     “It sets a great precedence for [...] future years of what the physics club can do,” said Heather Moore ’10. “It solidifies us as one of the most active academic clubs on campus.”
     This prize was won for their contribution to the NanoBowl Tournament, a contest to create a video combining physics with football, in tribute to Super Bowl XLII. After much debate amongst the club, they agreed on the topic and title of “Theoretical Football” for their video.
     “I encourage everyone to check out the video,” professor of physics John Lindner said. “It’s meant to be fun, spoofing physicists and football. The more physics you know, the funnier it is, but most people can get the general gist. It’s almost entirely absurdist humor.”
     The video was filmed and directed by John Gamble ’08, head of the Physics Club and member of The Gallows program, which contributed filming equipment.
     The video was posted at Physics Central (www.physicscentral.com), along with 27 other submissions from across the country. Of those entries, the Wooster Physics team placed in the top nine, pushing them into the semifinals.
     “The Wooster campus really helped to push our votes,” said Gamble. “It was really great to see that in the WHN — we didn’t think that anyone really cared.”
     Once in this category, the team won the popular vote, as well as the award. However, they lost the grand prize to a video entitled “Nanobowl 10-9,” by Rochester Adams High School. For their place in the semifinals, they were given a certificate and one of the nanotrophies, the world’s smallest trophy.
     “If you gave the trophy to most people,” said Lindner, “it would look like a featureless chip. We’re going to take it and magnify it 100,000 times.”
     The trophy, literally a computer chip, appears to only say “Physics Central: Nanobowl Champion 2008.” Upon viewing via an electron micrograph, the chip reveals several pictures of football fields at various magnifications.
     “Wooster students are multidimensional; they have a particular major, but they’re good at other things,” said Lindner. “This is not the theater club winning an award for a video — it’s the physics club. This is a demonstration of what we set out to do as a liberal arts school.”
     The Physics Club’s video can be found in high quality at www.wooster.edu/physics and on YouTube. For more information, contact Lindner at jlindner@wooster.edu.

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