We’re honored to get to say, “We did it!” With a final count of 5,401 people, all armed with Windbags, the seats at Coors Field were flooded with science as we set out to set a new world record for the the Largest Physics Lesson. What a sight… a sea of Windbags with a special fly-over by Sky9, that captured the moment on film from the helicopter. The requirement for Guinness World Records was that the lesson last at least 30 minutes, but, we decided to take it to the next level and go for a full 51 minutes. There were Mentos Geysers, Rockies players with Potato Guns, a lesson on Bernoulli’s Principle, and, of course, a giant kaboom for the finale. And, at the end of the lesson an official Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand to present our team with a certificate for the new world record. Learn more about all of the science experiments featured on Science Day at Coors Field.
If you couldn’t get enough of flying potatoes the first time, the nice people at the Ellen Show are rerunning the show that originally aired on April 15, 2008. The featured experiments include the Baby Diaper Secret, Fire Water and several versions of our potato guns (okay… call them “launchers”).
Last week the producers at the Ellen Show called to see if I had anything new that might amaze Ellen… and make her laugh. Hmmm… what do you think? After a few phone calls and some time trading some demo videos over e-mail, we’re set with the show line-up for Tuesday, April 15th. The most asked question I get after one of these appearances is how do I go about picking the science experiments. Does the producer pick everything? Do I get to make any suggestions? The answer is both. In the case of the Ellen Show, the producers come to me with some requests after watching a few of my science video segments from 9NEWS and ask for my feedback. We trade ideas and finally arrive at a final list of demos that the segment producer pitches to his executive producers. The moment we get the thumbs up, we move into high gear getting everything packed and shipped off to the studio in Burbank. That’s the boring answer to the question.
Over one million viewers tuned in to learn how to spice up their 4th of July activities by making Steve Spangler’s potato gun. The original potato launching segment that aired a week earlier on the 9NEWS 4 O’Clock show prompted viewers to email in record number wondering where to get the handheld launcher. Here’s the potato launcher write-up.
I just completed a segment for television on the “power of air”. How else to better demonstrate “power” than to have a little fun with a potato gun. Now before anyone gets bent out of shape because I’m doing something so “unsafe”, take a look at the video to see how this potato launcher works. The original design was actually created by a great chemistry teacher from Naperville, Illinois by the name of Lee Marek. It’s really a great way to demonstrate Boyle’s Law.
Behind the scenes… Remember that most of the work I do on television is live. There’s no retakes or editing – what you see is what you get, and rarely do I ever get a chance to practice with any of the other news anchors. If you watched the video, you saw that Mark Koebrich and I had a blast on camera, but that’s all you saw “on camera”. What you didn’t see was the camera man, director, audio technician and the security guard all shooting potato plugs in the 9NEWS backyard. Funny how a simple little device can bring the kid out in all of us.
Over one million viewers tuned in to learn how to spice up their 4th of July activities by making Steve Spangler’s potato gun. The 
I just completed a segment for television on the “power of air”. How else to better demonstrate “power” than to have a little fun with a potato gun. Now before anyone gets bent out of shape because I’m doing something so “unsafe”, take a look at the 
