Physics Made Fun
A team of students from the University of Warsaw and Warsaw University of Technology have been sending the people of Lerwick back to school by hosting a series of physics demonstrations on board Polish vessel, Pogoria.
With no stuffy classroom or science laboratory in sight, the students have been making physics fun to honour the 100th anniversary of the second Nobel Prize for Madame Maria Sklodowska-Curie, the famous Polish-French scientist.
The initiative entitled: äóìPhysics under sailsäó was originally introduced by Dr Jan Grabski, Professor of Physics in 2005 to celebrate the International Year of Physics.
Dr Grabski explains: äóìBy doing physics demonstrations on Pogoria, it enables the students to make physics fun relating it to their love of sailing and also helps to provide the public with a chance to learn in a different environment. The students perform several demonstrations to explain why a ship sails in the direction it does and how to determine a ship’ velocity along with a host of others. We have been visited by many families over the last few days and have all enjoyed our time in Lerwick.äó
The team of students will perform demonstrations on Pogoria again at 1900hrs today, an additional event following the delayed Parade of Sail and start of Race Two which will now take place tomorrow (Monday 25th July) from 1100hrs.
Pogoria is a sail training ship built in 1980 for the Iron Shackle Fraternity – the first sail training organisation in Poland initiated by Capt. Adam Jasser.
One of her first voyages was to The Tall Ships Races – 1980 where she competed in Class A and won both legs on elapsed time.
