HEATHER FAULAND/Arizona Daily Wildcat Student teacher Erik Herman demonstrates his fire tube at Tuesday night's Physics Phun Night event at the Physical and Atmospheric Sciences building. Approximately 300 onlookers, mostly children and their parents were on hand to watch the various experiments.

They played with fire and demonstrated how to shoot a monkey if trapped in a jungle. One professor even sandwiched himself between two beds of nails.

At the 20th annual Physics Phun Nite professors and students put the "ph" in "phun."

Approximately 300 onlookers, mostly children and their parents, filled the Physics and Atmospheric Science auditorium to watch the various experiments.

"We do these physics demonstrations and have a good time with it," said physics professor Bill Bickel. "We don't explain the physics behind it. It is just for fun."

As mathematics professor Bruce Bayly lay on a bed of nails, his assistant, Tony Pitucco, stood by his side.

Pitucco placed another bed of nails on top of Bayly's stomach and then added a cinder block to the equation.

With the hit of a hammer, the block crumbled, and Bayly stood up unharmed. The reason was not explained. It was just deemed to be physics.

With each demonstration the crowd cheered and children sat wide-eyed.

"I really liked it when the one guy made the light bulb light up in his mouth with those shocks," said eight-year-old Ivan Rodriguez, who said that he would like to be a physicist when he grows up. "It is so much fun to watch."

Engineering physics senior David Kaz, another performer, got the crowd laughing when he came out in camouflage, asking what they would do if trapped in a jungle.

He then pretended that a teddy bear hanging from the ceiling was a monkey, and it was necessary to kill it for food.

The bear was dropped from the ceiling, and Kaz aimed at it with a gun-like contraption that shot out potatoes.

"We just enjoy doing this kind of thing," said Larry Hoffman, a senior physics laboratory coordinator who organized the event. "It's a chance for professors to showcase what they like to do."

There is another performance at 7 p.m. tonight in Room 201 of the Physics and Atmospheric Science Building. Admission is free.