When a physics demonstration went awry

On December 2nd the Ginger Public Speaking blog had a post about When Props Attack! How to Use Visual Aids for Good, not Evil. It reminded me of a story my mother told about a parents night at Wightman Elementary School. Mrs. Strauchler, our science teacher, did a physics demonstration. She swung a half-full bucket of water quickly over her head to demonstrate that centrifugal force would keep the contents safely inside.




The Youtube video shown above with Paul Hewitt portrays how the demonstration is supposed to work. Unfortunately Mrs. Strauchler moved too close to the first row of desks. Her bucket struck the front edge of one, and immediately dumped a gallon of cold water on her startled audience. My mother had trouble telling us the story, because she kept laughing too hard.

The bucket image came from Wikimedia Commons.