This year on April 17th PONYS organized the fourth edition of “Passione Fisica” (“Physical Passion”, roughly translated) at Città della Scienza, the biggest science museum of southern Italy: an entire day dedicated to physics popularization through demonstrations and simple experiments. Supported by EPS and OSA and involving more than 100 volunteers among physics students of University of Naples “Federico II”, the event was targeted at both children and adults and designed as a journey through different fields of physics entitled “Physics Express”. Ranging from Electromagnetism and Optics to Thermodynamics and Particle Physics, most of the experiments were made of everyday materials, in order to both stimulate the audience with familiar stuff and to make those experiments easily reproducible and interactive. In particular, great importance was given to the hands-on aspect of the event, and in this perspective we proposed a new physics-based construction lab, where children were involved from the very beginning in the construction of simple toys based on physical principles. Such principles could be thus understood in a very practical, funny and powerful way, and eventually children could obviously keep the toy they built as a souvenir of the day. “Passione Fisica” was also the occasion to spread among the large public the award-winning documentaries of the European Science TV and New Media Awards 2015, which were showed in a hall for the whole duration of the event, and to celebrate the OSA Centennial with a dedicated desk.
Alongside our activities, Città della Scienza organized during the day other demonstrations and talks in partnership with local associations and research centers, which presented some of the hottest topics of their work. According to the museum ticket-selling office, more than 800 people joined us for the event.
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