When a lot of students think of the term “physics” their first reaction isn’t usually one of extreme interest or any other exciting superlative. However, on Simpson’s campus this year, physics is fighting back and proving themselves to not being just some average club on campus.

Recently, the Physics Club has teamed up with the Environmental Awareness Club (EAC) here on campus in a joint project to transform a bench into a recharging station. The clubs plan to incorporate using solar panels by power of sunlight into a place where students can recharge their cell phones, laptops and other electronics while being out-side.

The project started last spring when one member had DVD information on how to build a solar panel and the rest of the members decided that they wanted to do it. A panel can be built for under $100, which fit the budget, so Professor of Physics, Dr. David Ols-gaard, gave the green light on the project. The group bought some supplies needed and they started assembling it. They began very late last spring, and very little happened in the summer, so they started to pick it up again this fall.

“There is a lot of soldering and construction involved and once it’s done, of course, we want to do something with it,” said Olsgaard. “One of the suggestions I had was to make some kind of a charging kiosk on campus. It would be a little station where you could plug in a cell phone or a laptop and sit there and work with it while it’s charging. They have some other ideas floating around as well.

The thought is to place a diagonally-angled solar panel above a seating and when the sun comes down, it’s going to have to have a battery and some converter to DC to AC. The idea is to sit under it, in the shade, and work on your laptop or whatever it is you’re charging. The idea for it being above the seating is to catch as much light as possible and the airflow going underneath should help keep the panel from overheating.

The idea isn’t to add this to an already existing bench; it will stand on it’s own and have it’s own built-in seat.

For those who might not completely understand how it solar power can be transformed into a battery charger, here is an intricate explanation.

First of all, the panels are made of silicon and when light shines on it, it liberates elec-trons and electrons are needed to make a current flow. So, it produces a current flow, but the flow is only in one direction and that’s great for charging devices. It’s called DC, direct current, and that’s the same as the kind of current in a battery. It flows in one di-rection and then the panels can be used to charge a battery, for example. It’s part of this kiosk, would have to be a battery in it and that the panel would keep charged. There also needs to be an inverter converter to DC to AC to step it up to 120 volts AC, so that things can plug into it.

“I’m hoping when it’s done that there might be a little documentation along with it kind of explaining the different parts of it and how it works,” said Olsgaard.

Somewhere under the recharging kiosk would have to be the battery and other neces-sary parts. The idea is if they were incased in plexiglass or something clear, people could see what’s in it and how it works. That would also aid in understanding and possi-bly add interest to the project.

“It’s cool and a nice opportunity for physics students to apply what they’re learning in the classroom to something that can be used on campus,” said Laura Collins, an active member of Physics Club.

The panel itself is about $100 and it’ll probably cost about $300 to build the rest of it. Things are going kind of slow right now, but the panel is almost finished; the casing will be the final step. They foresee the project lasting a couple more months.

If the first solar-paneled recharging station goes well, then they would plan to continue it with other benches on campus. The students’ hard work on the project has given themappreciation for the subject and have allowed even non-majors to apply physics to their everyday lives.

“I’m not a physics major or minor, but it does interest me,” said physics club president Phil Seiwert. “The activities associated with physics club got me interested. Physics re-ally is involved in everything we do.”

The group hopes that their recharging station and other projects will also spark appreci-ation and interest from other students, faculty, the community and visitors passing through.

Along with giving back to the students at Simpson, the club plans to spread their physics knowledge to the public. Outreach, a new program the club is pursuing, will take the club to community elementary schools and get them fired-up about physics.

“We plan on going to elementary schools in the upcoming weeks or next semester to do some fun activities with them and get them excited about physics,” said Seiwert.

The club hasn’t participated in Outreach in the past, but they are excited to see where it will lead in the future.

Simpson hosted a physics modeling competition on Nov. 12 and 13. It’s the second year that they’ve had the competition, but the first year that Simpson has hosted it. A trio of students participated in the competition. The event isn’t really a club event, but there is an international physics competition, very similar to the math modeling competi-tions that has gotten a lot of attention on campus.

How these competitions work is a team of three students will pick one of two physics re-lated questions and will spend 48 hours intensively working on it and submit a paper on it. The questions are open-ended; there is no definite answer to them, but the teams must choose whatever direction they feel would lead them to the best solution. Laura Collins, Jake Johnson, and Warren Drucker represented Simpson this year.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Collins. “It was similar to the math modeling competitions that they do in Februrary, but it’s shorter. They’re two seperate things, but the format is simi-lar.”

Physics club isn’t all about serious projects that require hard work and dedication to the subject; They also participate in fun, leisurely activities such as “star parties”. Consid-ered a group favorite, a star party is where one night each semester the group breaks out a big telescope and looks at different constellations, galaxies, planets and whatever else is in the sky.

At the last star party, the club went out to Lake Acquabi. Normally, the stars can be seen from outside the Carver Science Building, but the students prefer to go out to Lake Acquabi because there is less light and it’s easier to see more of everything.“It’s a little harder to get people to travel,” said Olsgaard. “The viewing is better, but we’ve had more luck staying near campus. You can see the planets on campus, but if you want to look at faint objects you’ve got to get out of town.”

The star parties allow the members and non-members to get together, hang out and look at the stars. It’s a way for them to relax, have fun, but still be engaged in the sub-ject.

“I really enjoy the star parties because it’s not really something we get to do in the nor-mal classroom setting and we don’t get to learn about it a lot in the classes that I’ve had for physics, at least,” said Collins. “

Another fun activity the club is trying to do put together this year is an egg drop competi-tion. Physics Club members would come in, get a pack of materials and then they would have an hour to design a house for the egg. Once the houses were designed, they would take turns dropping it from a certain height and whoever’s egg could last without being broken would win a prize.

Normally, the group has about one project going on at a time; After they’re finished with the project, they get together and see what other projects or activities the club would want to do. It usually depends how much money they have at the time and, realistically, how much time is left for the project in the school year. The members of the club not only strive to teach others about physics, but many find it beneficial to themselves in gaining interest and skills for the future.

“Physics club has benefited me a lot,” said junior Jacob Christy. “I am learning about re-newable energy technologies and making new contacts in my field. It is full of people who share the love for physics.”

“I’ve learned to work with groups, deadlines, budget request forms,” said sophomore Mike Henry.

--------Physics club meets about every other week on Thursday nights around 8 p.m. to dis-cuss how current projects are going, activities, and future activities they’d like to pursue.

- Charlie Sandvick - Writer