AP Physics students participate in egg launch experiment

AP Physics students participate in egg launch experiment by grace ostric

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Above: Teacher Greg Huizenga uses his phone to time how long it takes for an egg to be launched from the device. From this, students perform calculations. (photo via Frank Roberts)

Advanced Placement (AP) Physics students participated in an egg launching lab during 3 hour on Monday Oct. 12. The students were required to build a device that launched an egg at least 5.0 meters vertically and 2.0 meters horizontally.

Above: Students built a variety of contraptions to launch their eggs.

Teacher Greg Huizenga created the lab as a physical application of projectile motion, a topic within the kinematics unit. The students had 5 weeks to build their launcher. Then, on Monday, the students walked out to the soccer field to test out their devices.

Above: Using both the distance the egg traveled and the time it took, the students were able to calculate velocity, angle of launch and max height.

“I liked it because I had a fun time building it and it was fun to apply physics,” senior Ford Frisinger said.

Although challenging, the overall project was enjoyable to many students. It was a taste of the real-world use of physics.

“It allowed me to be creative and I got to apply what I learned in school,” senior Frank Roberts said.

Appreciate