Flashback Friday: Smashing Pumpkins

On October 31, 2006, William Skocpol, a College of Arts & Sciences professor emeritus of physics, got ready for the physics department’s annual Pumpkin Drop. For more than a quarter century around Halloween, the physics department has hosted the popular event, which doubles as a fun lesson in gravitation, velocity, and energy transfer. On the day, department members fill pumpkins with food items like Jello, flour, and pudding and hurl them from the Metcalf Science Center roof. The pumpkins are composted afterwards. This year’s drop is Friday, October 30, at 2 pm.

Photo by BU Photography