This Year, There's More to the State Fair than Grandma's Apple Pie

Perhaps it’s America’s humble, rural origins that produced this backcountry entertainment, such as livestock competitions and baking exhibitions. Or maybe it’s just the personal desire to win that has driven generations of Americans to town, county, and state fairs.
By tradition, State Fairs are a recreational gathering of competitors and patrons alike, seeking their amusement from musicians and farming oddities, but there’s a reason they award ribbons of eight colors. Competitors have traditionally been driven by the desire to display the fruits of delicate labor and achieve the respect of their friends and neighbors.

A Tradition of Experiment

Allen Kim ’10 wound his way between the congested tables of Clark Hall’s third floor. He circumvented Ernest Rutherford’s gold foil experiment. He sidestepped past some radioactive particles. He dodged some gamma rays, and evaded the nuclear forces emanating from the magnetic resonance imaging device. After scaling the steps to the fourth floor of Clark Hall, he located his homework, a contraption of gizmos, gadgets and coils that manipulates the physical properties of light. He finished his journey, and began his homework assignment for PHYS 410/510: Advanced Experimental Physics.