Physics at Science Rendezvous Kingston 2024

Science Rendezvous Kingston returned to Slush Puppie Place on May 11th, 2024. The event was a huge success, with 5201 visitors interacting with 60 booths and 480 volunteers. Over 500 people came through the doors in the first 11 minutes and the crowds continued to the end. For more about the event see the articles in the Whig Standard and the Queen’s Gazette.

The Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy, along with our partners at SNOLAB, the Institute of Particle Physics, and the McDonald Institute, was once again one of the major contributors to the event, with more than 35 physics students, staff, and faculty contributing their time and their talents to present an engaging set of activities designed to highlight the fascination of science.

Activities presented by our Department

• Centripetal Spinners
• Whirlpool bottles
• "Floating picture" experiment
• A high speed camera with demos and hands-on activities
• An interactive virtual tour of SNOLAB
• A slide show of images from the impressive aurora borealis event that happened the evening before Science Rendezvous
• Science Art ("Draw yourself as a Scientist")
• Smoke ring cannons A Gravity Table Solar telescopes
• A "power walk" exploring the Universe on different length scales
• Solar eclipse chalk art
• Pin hole cameras

Kingston Science Rendezvous in pictures

Photos are courtesy of Science Rendezvous Kingston and Prof. Alex Wright. Click on the images to enlarge.

Livia Comeau setting up the Solar system walk.

 

Eyes to the sky in our outdoor activity.

 

Some of our volunteers as we await the arrival of our guests.

 

Things got busy quickly.

 

Our station (center of the image) attracted crowds all day long.

Benjamin Broerman and Armin Mirabolghasemi setting up for our small smoke ring cannons.

 

Zoe Brisson-Tsavoussis training our junior scientists with the small smoke ring cannon.

Junior scientist finding joy in knocking down cups with an air cannon… or perhaps blowing our volunteer's hair back.

 

 

Junior scientists exploring the Whirlpool bottles.

 

Emma Ellingwood helps a visitor with the large smoke ring cannon.

A smoke ring in the air.

 

Alex Wright helps a visitor launch a smoke ring from a smaller cannon.

Smoke Cannons in Action

Double Smoke Cannon filmed with a high speed camera. (Video credit: Szymon Manecki)

Testing the large smoke ring cannon during setup. (Video credit: Jennifer Low)

Thank you to all the volunteers

We would like to thank all of our volunteers for helping to make the day a success: Nikhil Arora, Minya Bai, Akanksha Bij, Ayan Biswas, Mayukh Bagchi, James Barron, Joseph Bramante, Zoe Brisson-Tsavoussis, Ben Broerman, Christopher Cappiello, Livia Comeau, Emma Ellingwood, Lawrence Faria, Pat Given, Melanie Greenwood, Jamie Grove, Chuck Hearns, Alex Knobel, Robert Knobel, Brian Krar, Jennifer Low, Julianna Manecka, Symon Manecki, Ryan Martin, Seyed Armin Mirabolghasemi, Parisa Nozari, John Odell, Nahee Park, Serena Riccetto, Mark Richardson, Sarah Sadavoy, Nicholas Swidinsky, Felix Thiel, Francesca Valentini, Tai Withers, and Alex Wright. A special thanks to Szymon and Julianna who, yet again, drove the 1200km round trip from Sudbury to participate in our event!

Thanks to everyone for making this event a success!

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