Rotational inertia and angular displacement are the usual terms buzzing around the physics room.
But peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?
On Oct. 2, physics teacher Todd Robins conducted an experiment with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to introduce rotational motion.
"I think that the experiment showed the class how to take a normal everyday activity and relate it to physics," said senior John Froelich. "Now I don't think physics is useless."
For the experiment, peanut butter and jelly was spread on a slice of bread, then pushed off the counter. At a certain height the bread fell face down; at a higher point it landed face up. The reason for the bread landing upside down was a lack of time to rotate fully.
Robins agrees it was a beneficial approach to learning.
"It is a nice introduction to rotational motion," said Robins. "They (students) were being the scientist by having a hypothesis and eventually coming to a conclusion of why a peanut butter and jelly sandwich falls face down."
"I thought that is was a wonderful thing to do and a practical application like this makes learning
not only more fun, but easier to absorb," said senior Eddy Abel. "The fact that he ruined a
perfectly good sandwich was heinous."