The Big Drop 2019

The 4th annual Big Drop was held on May 8 outside the Exley Science Center to mark the last day of classes for the Spring semester. The event was cosponsored by WesMaSS and the Chem Demos class (Chem 420).
A series of smashable items—including watermelons, bouncy balls, and oobleck were dropped from the building’s rooftop. Since many students are asked to compute the terminal velocity of an object falling in a vacuum, we decided this year to determine the terminal velocity of a vacuum itself, by tossing a vacuum cleaner.
The Free Radicals contributed a variety of explosive demonstrations including igniting the largest quantity of gun cotton ever assembled at Wesleyan, coordinated elephant toothpaste fountains, and burning the last Orgo exam in liquid oxygen.

Igniting Nitrocellulose (aka Gun Cotton) 

Creating Elephant Toothpaste

Organic Chemistry Exam Burning in Liquid Oxygen 

Terminal Velocity of a Vacuum