Students in Professor Gordon Jones' physics class learned about pressure by lying on a beds of nails.
Jones explains, "When a person lies on a bed of nails his weight is spread over a large area so it doesn't hurt (much) because the pressure is not as great." In the next step of the demonstration the students hit a cinder block with a sledge hammer. When the hammer hits the block a large force is exerted on a small area and it shatters because of the great pressure.
This experiment was performed in the Physics 195 course which focuses mainly on the study of waves and fields. Lubi Kutua, `04, says, "this is a genuinely interesting course that offers a lot of insight into the behavior of waves and other physical phenomena. Great for students who always find themselves asking, 'I wonder how that works.'"
Lubi Kutua, `04, is shown here smashing the cinder block on the chest of Professor Jones who is lying on the bed of nails.
