In October 2013 SPS chapters were asked, through social media, to send photos of their fall SPS events for a chance to be featured in The SPS Observer magazine and win great physics prizes. More than 120 fantastic and inspiring physics photos were received, far surpassing participation in any previous SPS photo contest. A panel of judges here at the ACP narrowed the entries down to ten, which were put to a public vote on the SPS Facebook page.
The SPS Chapter from Colorado Mesa University took 1st place for “Phone Book Tug-Of-War.” Two phone books were interlaced, each page on top of another, creating enough friction between the interlaced pages of the two phone books to withstand the opposing forces applied by the teams of physics and engineering students in a tug-of-war competition. The phone books did not separate, despite the fervent efforts of the two teams of determined students! See the inset for a close-up of the interlaced phone books. View all of the winning photos, along with a sample from each participating chapter, on the SPS website.
