Luna Park Excursion

On Tuesday the 8th of March, the year 12 physics class, joined by Mr Kazi and Mr Dorney, had an excursion to Luna Park in St Kilda. After just finishing our motion and forces unit and going into our circular motion studies, a theme park was the perfect real-life scenario to apply the physics we had been learning in the classroom. We arrived early in the morning so we could spend the whole day exploring the park and taking time to consider the physics involved in each ride. It was a school event at Luna Park so we saw many other fellow physics students from countless different schools, there were around 500 of us!

Physics is a subject that can be difficult to fully understand just from our textbook equations, so being able to see how the rules and concepts take place in real life was very valuable- and along with learning, it was very nice to have a bit of fun at Luna Park. Personally, I hadn’t visited the park in years so it was great to be able to come back.

We managed to get around to nearly all of the rides that were running, a few even getting to have a go twice and of course, Mr Kazi even joined us for a few. There was definitely some rides that were too…upside down, for everyone to want to join in, but it was very amusing watching our peers from a safe spot, secure on the ground. 

I found myself subconsciously thinking of physics while in the rides, it was great to be able to physically feel the forces acting on me and have an understanding of why that is- these were concepts we had discussed back at school but we were now able to experience them ourselves and I would definitely say it has aided in our overall understanding of motion and forces. Back in class after this excursion, Mr Kazi has been able to use the rollercoasters and the rides as an example to explain further ideas which relates the topics directly to first-hand experience!

Overall, extremely fun day- and we got an amazing photo of us all in front of the Luna Park face.

Jade Nebbs