When Pigs Fly!

We've been studying circular motion in physics for a while now. In class this past week, Mr. Giromini came into the room and put a stack of papers on his desk. A few minutes into class, he said something to the effect of, "So there's an expression. It's pretty common, you've probably heard it." Upon spotting someone in the back of the room with an iPod, he interrupted himself to say, "Take that out of your ear! Oh no, that's not the expression...! I don't even want to know what that would mean!" At this point, amid the class's laughter, I noticed a translucent box also on his desk, but couldn't see into it. We'll come back to that. He continued, "No, the expression is 'When pigs fly.' As in, 'You'll get some sleep this week, when pigs fly.' Or, 'You'll get a four-point-oh, when pigs fly.'" He went on to name some more examples of the phrase in use, while passing out the stack of papers. To the amusement of the class, it was a lab cover sheet with this at the top:


It said we would have to "collect data on the motion of a flying pig (or some other flying object) that is moving in a horizontal circle while attached to the ceiling by a piece of string" (Lyons et al.). I presently guessed at what was in the box. "This," said Mr. Giromini, removing its lid and producing a battery-operated pig with wings, tied to a string, "is Mr. Lyons' sense of humor." He showed us how the wings really did flap, and rather quickly at that, when it is turned on.

He then said that for those of us that did not want to be seen with a flying pig, he had one fighter jet for the group that wanted it. Gabe called it right away. Mr. Giromini informed us that we should be careful with the front of the jet, as it is pointy.


So we got into groups, and one person from each group went up to get a pig. It was ridiculously entertaining (in that Only at IA way) to watch everyone in the room trying to take measurements of their pig's motion, while also trying not to crack up at the sight. We only needed to measure the height of the pig's path relative to the ceiling and the time it took to make a full circle, so we were done with the measurements pretty quickly. This video might help with the visualization of the scene:

Now imagine that, but with one of those in every corner of the room, and then some. And people trying to get accurcise measurements. Then throw in the whirring of Gabe's fighter jet. After my group was done, I went to investigate the progress of the fighter jet group. The little plane was moving in an almost too perfect to believe circle, having been thrown by Hollis. Observe:

This baffled Gabe, who could not understand how Hollis has gotten it to fly so perfectly. They were done too, so he stopped it (which was a conundrum in itself, what with the aforementioned pointy front and propeller on the back- luckily he managed to touch the prop only once) and tried to throw it thusly himself, to no avail. It kept spinning around and flying backwards. (This point in the story is important. I won't tell you why just yet, but remember it.) I stayed to watch for a while, then went to help my group clean up.

So in the end, pigs flew in circles, measurements were taken, and no one's hand was sliced off by the propeller. I'd say, overall, it was a success.

A quick note on the origin of the media in this post: At about the point where the second video comes is, Mr. Giromini left the room. (To find out where he went, click here.) I really wanted documentation of this event, but Mr. Giromini has a very strict no-phones-in-class-or-I'll-take-them-apart-and-put-the-pieces-in-with-all-the-others-muahaha rule. I debated it with myself for a short while, then decided that he would understand. He didn't come back until the important point in time that I said I would explain later. He adopted a shocked expression and managed to breathe, "Why is your phone out!?" Well maybe that's slightly exaggerated, but not much, and I like the image. Anyway, I explained, "C'mon Mr. Giromini, there are pigs with wings flying around the classroom. It's an Only at IA moment," to which he responded, "Fair enough," and went back to his desk. So now I have proof!