March 17 the USU chapter of the Society of Physics Students hosted a drop of 20,000 bouncy balls to model the effects of space weather on satellites. The cascading balls represented electron radiation bombardment of a spacecraft. They opened it up to the public and tried to show the community that science can be fun. They dropped the balls out of a helicopter 100ft in the air.
Waiting for the helicopter.




Ethan got a little bored while waiting ...

I think word got out because there were a TON of people there!

Once the helicopter showed up, it only took a minute before the bouncy balls started raining down.


It's hard to see because the balls were so little, but this is of them bouncing around the parking lot.

After the students conducting the experiment gave the okay, the crowds rushed all the bouncy balls. It got a bit crazy ...
Luckily, Ethan was able to get a handful of bouncy balls. Although he doesn't look very excited in this picture, he couldn't stop talking about all the bouncy balls.

Although it got a little crazy with so many people there, it was kind of fun to go see something like that. It's not like you get to see 20,000 bouncy balls falling out of a helicopter very often. :)