COD professor brings physics to life

College of DuPage physics professor David Fazzini is out to get students excited about science.

By any means necessary.

“Obviously we can open up a book and read about science,” said Fazzini, who has taught at College of DuPage for nine years. “But we don't actually do science.”

Fazzini believes in “doing science” as wholly as he believes in the laws of physics. He demonstrated his commitment to both last week in a lesson nearly two dozen high school students in the National Career Pathways Network program aren't likely to forget.

His experiment is certainly something none of the 22 girls in the four-day COD enrichment program expected.

Fazzini announces he will lie on a bed of nails and allow a co-worker to break a cinder block over his chest.

He's not crazy, as some of his wide-eyed students seem to think.

He's demonstrating the real life properties of energy and momentum in what he refers to as “one of the classic physics demonstrations.”

“Physicists are like kids that don't grow up,” Fazzini said. “You get to play with toys all the time.”

His seemingly loose definition of “toys” includes a sledgehammer and two plywood boards, each holding a bed of very real, very sharp nails.

Now he definitely has the attention of the local high school participants. And that's the goal of the program, which this year is funded by an American Association of University Women grant in an effort to increase the enrollment of Latina and African-American women in math and science majors, co-project Director Cynthia Johnson said.

Before positioning himself on the first board of nails, Fazzini removes his shirt to avoid puncturing the cloth.

The crowd of girls titters nervously.

“Ladies, ladies,” Fazzini said, pointing to his wedding band.

He reclines, seemingly unperturbed for someone lying on a bed of nails.

“Dave has a demo for everything,” fellow COD physics Professor Tom Carter said of Fazzini.

Carter has wielded the sledgehammer in this experiment more than a dozen times in the five years Fazzini has used it in class.

“You have to physically break the cinder block apart,” said Jennifer Gimmell, a summer adjunct at College of DuPage. “If it doesn't, all it does is push the nails in.”

Fazzini and Carter regularly use the demonstration in Fazzini's introductory physics and mechanical engineering courses to demonstrate energy and momentum.

“The mass of a hammered brick will absorb some of the force of the blow,” Carter said. “Simultaneously, the large number of nails distributes the force of the blow over a large area.”

Carter and Gimmell each grab the handles of the second, identical nail-filled board.

“Are you going to sandwich him?” one worried student asks.

The pair lowers the board on top of Fazzini and balances a cinder block vertically over his chest.

Camera phones emerge and hands cover open mouths as Gimmell leads a countdown to Fazzini's fate.

Carter winds up and brings the hammer down on the brick with a responding crash.

Cries of “do it again” are sprinkled throughout the group as Fazzini stands, slightly dusty from the rubble but unharmed.

“Another day, another $1.50 at Home Depot,” Carter said.

The nails leave a grid of indentations on Fazzini's bare chest and back, markings he says are not painful but rather similar to the lines left behind after wearing socks that are too tight.

“Kind of reminds me I have to aerate my lawn,” Fazzini jokes.

Though Fazzini must be careful not to move under the weight of nails, he does not worry too much about injury.

It's all in a day's work, he says.

“But just in case I've had my tetanus shot,” he said.