‘Tony Hawk Rad Science’ exhibit uses skateboarding to teach physics

Inertia and force and velocity and acceleration.

Oh my.

Normally, they're the stuff of final exam nightmares. But when such concepts of physics are applied to the amazing things skateboarding icon Tony Hawk does for a living, they become things of beauty and grace.

For anybody skeptical that physics has anything at all to do with skateboarding (much less beauty and grace), proof to the contrary can be found at "Tony Hawk Rad Science," a Las Vegas Natural History Museum exhibit that runs through Jan. 20 at the Sahara West Library.

Through a collection of displays and interactive activities, fans of both skateboarding and science - and anybody who's not convinced that what Tony Hawk does even conforms to the laws of physics - can learn about how physical laws contribute to skateboarding's showy appeal.

In one exhibit, the physics behind such moves as the Kickflip, the Ollie, the Backside Broadside and the Backside 360 Ollie are explained. (Spoiler alert: It involves things such as torque and force and inertia.)

Students also will learn that balancing on a skateboard means constantly shifting one's center of gravity, which is helpfully defined as "the point at which your mass is most concentrated."

Visitors also can learn about Isaac Newton's laws of motion in "Isaac Newton's Pool" (a clever bit of wordplay that alludes to the empty swimming pools that served as the first amateur skate parks), and ponder the Zen-like notion of "the smoother the surface the better the ride" at Friction Hill.

To see how we've gotten from there to here, the exhibit even reviews the history of skateboards from the '50s through today and includes among its vintage boards Hawk's first skateboard, circa 1976. One particularly amusing part of the display is a Life magazine cover from 1965 featuring a skateboarder and the headline, "The craze and the menace of skateboards."

Finally, a can't-miss plaque offers a shout-out to students from Las Vegas' own West Career and Technical Academy who, the plaque notes, served as consultants during the exhibit's development.

"Tony Hawk Rad Science" - housed in the former Las Vegas Art Museum space at the Sahara West Library - is an offering of the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.

"It's a really interesting concept," said Marilyn Gillespie, the museum's executive director. "It's, like, how do you get kids excited about science? And you do it by making connections in their life. Then they realize physics is all around us every day in everything we do, including, if you're a kid, skateboarding."

Even as visitors learn about scientific principles, the exhibit is fun because it's very interactive, Gillespie added.

"And, it's Tony Hawk, who is very iconic and very successful."

The exhibit already has been visited by school groups from several grade levels, said Mary Pike, director of science for the Clark County School District.

Educators have to make things relevant to kids, Pike said. By connecting science to something students have seen firsthand, "it does make them understand that things happen in the real world, instead of, 'Hey, I'm in a classroom reading a book.' "

The exhibit is on a national tour and is new, Gillespie said, "so we're just very lucky to have it."

However, she noted, "It's too big for us to put over here in the museum. That's why we have it over at the Sahara West Library."

Some might consider the science-oriented exhibit a departure from the natural history museum's usual focus.

"One of the things I've been asked," Gillespie says, "is, 'Why are you doing this exhibit?' "

The answer: It's an example of a broadening of the museum's mission beyond the natural sciences into science in general, as evidenced by, for example, its role in producing the Las Vegas Science Festival, which focuses on science, technology, math and engineering.

"So we have expanded our mission," Gillespie said. "(And) this exhibit really is our first opportunity to do that. We've always been teaching the natural sciences, but this is an opportunity to go in a different direction, too."

Contact reporter John Przybys at
jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.