Dear Physics Faculty: Welcome to Fall 2018! We look forward to assisting you with your demonstration needs this semester and helping you to make your classes exciting and interactive.

As we prepare for the fall semester, please remember we do need adequate time to prepare your demonstrations and ensure there are no conflicts between orders. For morning classes, please have orders in before 1:00 PM of the previous day; for afternoon classes, before 4:00 AM the day of the class. The order system will not be able to process your orders after this time. The demonstrations order forms can be found under “Demonstration Services” on our website, or through this mobile shortcut page.

If your class is outside the John S. Toll Physics Building, please get in touch with us one to two days in advance if possible so we can make arrangements for the materials to be packed so you or your TA can pick them up and return them in PHY0402.

We are happy to work with you to ensure that you have everything you need. As the university grows, we're all looking forward to an exciting new semester!

– The Lecture-Demonstration Team

Happy 2023! Welcome to the spring semester at UMD Physics!

The Physics Lecture-Demonstration Facility is here to fulfill your classroom demonstration needs this semester. We’re looking forward to an exciting semester!

Be sure to explore our new online resources as well, including the demonstration videos channel, LecDem blog, and the directory of simulations. Keep an eye out for new material to come!

If you have any questions about finding the right demonstrations or other resources for your class, access to the order form, or anything else we can help with, be sure to call or email.

Please remember to order your demonstrations before the cutoff deadline for the order form system: For morning classes, before 1PM the previous working day; for afternoon classes, before 4AM the day of the class. Where possible, we appreciate having the orders at least one full working day ahead, to ensure plenty of time to make sure everything is ready for you.

We have many events coming up this spring, including Physics is Phun, Physics Discovery Day, and Maryland Day; watch our website for news!

Welcome to the fall 2023 semester at UMD Physics! We’re looking forward to an exciting semester!

If you have any questions about finding the right demonstrations or other resources for your class, access to the order form, or anything else we can help with, be sure to call or email.

Please remember to order your demonstrations before the cutoff deadline for the order form system: For morning classes, before 1PM the previous working day; for afternoon classes, before 4AM the day of the class. Where possible, we appreciate having the orders at least one full working day ahead, to ensure plenty of time to make sure everything is ready for you. Some demonstrations may require more notice if they use particularly complex apparatus or materials that require special handling.

We have many events coming up this year; our first Physics is Phun show will be the weekend of September 22nd, and don't forget about the weekly Physics Colloquium beginning September 5th!

 See you soon!

Welcome to the Spring 2020 semester! We're looking forward to assisting you with your physics class demonstration needs this year.

You can learn about demonstrations through the demonstration index here on our website; both the demonstrations and the order forms can be found in the Demonstration Services menu. Be sure also to check out some of our new and revised demonstrations, here in the blog and on the demo pages.

The order form has been updated this year! Please remember to order your demonstrations before the cutoff deadline for the order form system: For morning classes, before 1PM the previous working day; for afternoon classes, before 4AM the day of the class. We are happy to meet with you to plan and review demonstrations; call or email us to set up a time to meet.

We have some exciting outreach programs coming up this season! In February, we'll be presenting a Physics is Phun program, The Physics of Fantastic Worlds; and a Discovery Day program, Quantum Kids. More programs will follow later in the spring, culminating with Maryland Day, which this year will include both our famous liquid nitrogen ice cream and another Physics is Phun presentation.

We would love to have more faculty, staff, and students involved in demo-related outreach activities. If you have an idea or want to participate in spring outreach or summer programs, please let us know.

Physics (from Ancient Greek: φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), translit. physikḗ (epistḗmē), lit. 'knowledge of nature', from φύσις phýsis "nature"^[1][2][3]) is the natural science that studies matter^[4] and its motion and behavior through space and time and that studies the related entities of energy and force.^[5] Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, and its main goal is to understand how the universe behaves.^[a][6][7][8]

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps the oldest.^[9] Over the last two millennia, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics were a part of natural philosophy, but during the scientific revolutionin the 17th century, these natural sciences emerged as unique research endeavors in their own right.^[b] Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often explain the fundamental mechanisms studied by other sciences^[6] and suggest new avenues of research in academic disciplines such as mathematics and philosophy.

Advances in physics often enable advances in new technologies. For example, advances in the understanding of electromagnetism and nuclear physics led directly to the development of new products that have dramatically transformed modern-day society, such as television, computers, domestic appliances, and nuclear weapons;^[6] advances in thermodynamics led to the development of industrialization; and advances in mechanicsinspired the development of calculus.

Hello, readers! Welcome to the new Physics Lecture Demonstration Facility News Page and Blog!

What can you expect to find here? All sorts of things! We’ll be updating regularly with the latest news on our demonstrations and outreach activities. In between, we’ll have articles about demonstrations and how to use them in class, physics news and history, and interesting new articles about science education.

Some upcoming highlights to watch for in the coming weeks:

* Introductions to the newest demonstrations in the facility, with tips on using them in class to spark classroom engagement

* News from the UMD Physics Summer Programs

* An appreciation celebrating the 100^th birthday of NASA scientist Katherine Johnson, and other interesting facets of physics history

* Resources on science in recent films, and ways to use such material in the classroom

If you have a topic you’d like to see us cover, let us know! Tweet @LecDemFacility or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Also, we are inviting guest posts from the UMD Physics community. If there’s something you’d like to write about, get in touch with us to discuss topics and guidelines. We’d love to have the opportunity to share your thoughts.

We have a long and exciting journey ahead, so we hope you’ll join us and check back every week for the latest from the Physics Lecture Demonstration Facility News Page and Blog.