For this year's open house we went with a whole new format. Instead of cramming people into our little lab, we took up a space in one of the big tents. Here Mike talks about friction and uses our sliding blocks with different grit sandpaper to demonstrate roughness.
Meanwhile, Rob mans the elastic properties booth, where we've got a piece of rock wired up with strain gauges. He asks guests to test their strength at squeezing a rock. This year we added a rubber cube as a reference and even went with a digital display (fancy!).
Additionally we opened up the back window of the lab where the cryofriction rig is housed and allowed people to "Step Right Up" and peer in to see an actual experiment in action.
Here Ted talks to the folks outside the window and demonstrates all of the components that go into a friction experiment.
