Yep. Those words can be used in the same sentence. Don’t let them ever tell you otherwise….
So what do you do with a room full of physicists, from tender undergraduate to hardened graduate student to stone-chisled faculty?
Well, first you feed them…..
…And then you play physics-themed Pictionary of course!!
Random numbers picked themes, chapter headings, or words from a physics textbook. Then someone draws the concept (no equations or words allowed) and their team (which does not know the theme/word/etc) has to guess, to get a point on their turn.
The hardest one: “viscosity”. Easiest ones: “temperature”, “mass”.
The best one: “Electric field” (The player quickly drew a pylon carrying power lines… and then a football field. Brilliant.)
In case you were wondering, it was the USC Physics and Astronomy Department Holiday Party last night. I enjoyed it…Thanks Amy, Katie, Aditya, Thad and Ram, who organised it! (I also learned there that we have a number of readers of the blog from USC students…. Great! Hope you had fun too!)
-cvj
December 2nd, 2005 at 6:28 am
yes, basically the entire usc undergrad physics departments reads your blog! it’s like reading the DT, but interesting.
December 2nd, 2005 at 11:40 am
ooooh… you’re trying to scare me, right?!
-cvj
December 2nd, 2005 at 7:15 pm
Did the person who drew viscosity try an upside-down ketchup bottle? I guess the limitation there is the ability to render a tomato recognizably, but the idea should be conveyed pretty easily.
December 4th, 2005 at 2:09 am
Strange but the first thought that comes to my mind is to draw a sphere with fluid flow lines and sort of draw a force diagram for the object opposirte to it’s motion.
Sorry for the off-topic deviation. It sounds (and looks) like a really fun event. I seriously envy USC physics undergrads.
December 4th, 2005 at 3:10 am
Tom Renbarger: – I really do not know what he was trying to draw… it sort of looked like somethign trying to depict flow through a fluid…. but in the minute available to him, he did not get across the viscosity concept.
Cygnus: – It was rather a lot of fun…. and this is because people pitched in and got involved.
Cheers,
-cvj