On October 25th, we kicked off YPP for the 2014/15 school year with a session on momentum and energy. Students saw how potential energy could be converted into kinetic energy when we rolled ball bearings down PVC tubes, and they saw how momentum was conserved using carts on a low-friction track. We also saw energy and momentum at work in rockets, diet coke & mentos geysers, Newton's Cradle, and many more! Grad student Emily Nardoni gave a talk all about physics at different size and energy scales in the universe.
Incredibly, we had about 3-4 times more people preregister for YPP than we normally do! Although we were thrilled to see so many people interested, we weren't able to accomodate everybody, and had to turn some participants away at the door. We're very sorry to those we couldn't accomodate! If you're on our email list, you should have received a message explaining the circumstances, and what we're doing to make things better for our next session. In particular, if you were turned away in October, make sure to email ucsd.ypp@gmail.com so we can give you special priority next time you attend.
Our next YPP meeting will be on November 22nd, where we'll conduct an Egg Drop Challenge! Students will be tasked to build contraptions that will allow them to drop an egg from various heights without breaking the egg. We hope you'll join us!