Photo feature: Wondering about physics?

Kicking off his 19th presentation of the “Wonders of Physics” before a capacity crowd in 1300 Sterling, professor Julien “Clint” Sprott stands on a turntable to show how a spinning bicycle wheel also makes him rotate on the turntable. More than 150 times since 1984, Sprott and other sidekicks of science have presented “The Wonders of Physics,” a fast-paced science show. Sprott estimates that about 50,000 people have seen the show. (Photo: Jeff Miller)

 

Sprott stars in his own tour de force of forces — not to mention matter, motion and energy. (Photo: Jeff Miller)

 

Associate outreach specialist Roger Feeley plays the part of The Man from Plaid, a shaded character who loves cookies cooled in liquid nitrogen to minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit. He’s exhaling condensed moisture. Kids, don’t try this at home. (Photo: Jeff Miller)

 

At a Feb. 10 presentation, “The Physics of Transportation,” audience members Georgina Graff, Rosie Russell and Dan Graff clap hands to ears as Sprott sets a match to a balloon full of flammable hydrogen gas. (Photo: Jeff Miller)

 

Visiting physics professor George Rowlands, from the University of Warwick in England, plays the role of Sir Isaac Newton, who holds forth on the laws of gravity while astride his strangely metallic horse Dobbin. (Photo: Jeff Miller)

 

Audience member Andrea Eckert assists in a shocking display: Sitting in a wooden chair inside a Faraday cage, she watches as the million-volt Tesla coil generates a bolt that electrifies the metal. (Photo: Jeff Miller)