The Physics Dimension LLC

If you’ve spent any time around us, you’ve probably noticed that we’re a family of readers. One of our favorite things about performing at libraries is that we get to stand at the intersection of our biggest passions: science and stories. So we were delighted to be invited to perform for the Des Plaines Public Library’s Summer Reading Challenge kick-off this afternoon, in a more casual format than the structured shows we regularly bring to DPPL.

That casual format has a name: the Carousel of Science. Where our usual shows follow a deliberate arc — a story we tell with demonstrations, building from one idea to the next — a Carousel throws the doors open. There’s no seat, no single starting point, and no wrong way to explore it. Families and kids of all ages were free to circle back, linger, and get their hands on some of the equipment we’ve featured in previous shows, plus a good deal more.

The energy was fantastic. Kids experimented, willingly taking on shocks from our Van de Graaff and Wimshurst generators, touching the plasma globe with fingers, noses, and pencils, hammering a nail into a board with an LN2-frozen banana, and dropping a magnet down a copper tube. A few of these have a way of drawing out the best reactions. The frozen banana is a reliable favorite — a soft piece of fruit, chilled in liquid nitrogen until it’s hard enough to drive a nail, which is a perfect lesson in what temperature does to ordinary matter. The copper tube was a favorite of our youngest patrons: a magnet that appears to have briefly forgotten the rules of gravity, drifting down the tube in slow motion. Even before they have a word for “gravity”, little kids instinctively know what to expect from their observations of the universe, and watching their faces as those expectations are subverted is our greatest joy.

Parents leaned in to ask questions. Grandparents joined in the fun. People who had come for books found themselves talking about physics, and a few who came for science ended up browsing our own summer reading list display. That’s the exact kind of crossover we love to see.

Science doesn’t happen in a vacuum (except when it does)

A lot of what eventually becomes a Physics Dimension show starts as a conversation inspired by something we read. Sometimes it’s a scientific article, sometimes a history book, sometimes science fiction.

For the Summer Reading kick-off, we brought a display of books that have inspired, challenged, and entertained us, or simply helped us think differently about science and the world around us. Our Summer Reading List can be found here.

Some of these books are deeply serious. Some are delightfully weird. A few are both. They range across disciplines and centuries, written by working scientists, historians, and storytellers who never wore a lab coat in their lives. But all of them, in one way or another, tell stories about science.

The best experiences leave you with a question

We believe curiosity doesn’t end when a demonstration is over. The best science experiences leave you with a question. The best books do the same thing.

A child might come up to our Carousel of Science because they want to see liquid nitrogen. They might leave wanting to learn about space exploration, chemistry, engineering, or the people who made those scientific discoveries possible. Likewise, a reader might pick up a book about astronomy and want to see a vacuum chamber in action. Neither direction is more “correct” than the other — they’re the same loop, just entered from different doors.

Libraries make those connections possible every day, and we’re grateful to have been part of that mission this afternoon.

A summer reading promotion

To celebrate both summer reading and lifelong curiosity, we’re offering a special promotion: 10% off for summer readers.

Participants in DPPL’s Summer Reading Challenge can receive 10% off a booking with The Physics Dimension.

Not participating in the challenge?
That’s okay.
Read books from our Summer Reading List, send us a short review or reflection, and you’ll qualify for a 5% discount per book, up to 20% off. Tell us what you read, what surprised you, what you learned, and whether you’d recommend it. That’s it.

We take your curiosity as payment. (Well — curiosity and an actual booking.)

Thank you so much to the Des Plaines Public Library for hosting such a fantastic event, and for everything you do to foster curiosity in our community.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some reading to do.