An egg is kept on a roll of cardboard toilet paper, which sits on a plate set over a glass of water. Tatiana Erukhimova explains how she will remove the plaque. “If I do it right, then the plate will fly, the roller will fly, but the egg won’t fly,” she says in a Tiktok video of the demonstration. “He has inertia, so he’ll just fall into that glass with water.”
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On the count of three, she quickly removes the plate, which flies aside and drops the egg into the glass, sending a splash of water into the air. She knew it would happen, thanks to the law of inertia, but Erukhimova still celebrates it. The video has garnered over 8.3 million views since it was posted.
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Since that first viral video was posted on Dec. 13 last year, Erukhimova has received millions of views for her hands-on physics experiments, according to Texas A&M TODAY. “I could never get bored in her class,” reads one of the comments on the video of the egg drop. In another inertia video, she can be seen hitting the handle of a knife with a mallet, forcing a potato onto the blade. One user wrote, “How did I go 35 years without seeing or knowing this?”
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Erukhimova credits her department’s marketing staff for the popularity of her videos. However, the department’s page has amassed over 300,000 subscribers on the video-sharing app in just three months and that’s partly thanks to the energy Eruhimova brings to her classes. Currently, the channel has about 1.4 million followers.
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Erukhimova moved to College Station from Russia in 1999 to take up a research position at Texas A&M. Both of his parents are physicists. “My passion for physics is just in my genes, and I can’t imagine my life without physics,” she said. She worked at the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences before taking the position of Texas A&M.
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When offered a part-time position teaching a junior-level course on atmospheric thermodynamics, Erukhimova had no teaching experience. It turned out to be a success even though the class was only 30 students. “I thought, ‘Wonderful, this is America!'” she recalls. “After three years of teaching in this class, I felt I was an experienced instructor. And then in 2006 at eight o’clock in the morning, I found myself in front of a large introductory physics class with more than 100 freshmen.” That first day, Erukhimova said, was a “disaster.” The students were not interested in his class and did not pay attention. It was this experience that taught him the importance of getting students interested in the subject.
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In addition, she now believes in demonstrative courses. Erukhimova does this by applying abstract physics concepts to everyday life. “You get that ‘wow factor’ and then it’s easier to find a resonance,” she said. “I love what I teach and try to share my enthusiasm with them.” Her passion for demonstrations, large and small, is evident when she talks about different ways to illustrate physics concepts. “I strongly believe that not everyone needs to major in physics, science or engineering, but everyone should have the chance to play with it, respect the results of science and have the chance to learn how much fun it is,” she said.
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Although sharing her love for physics is nothing new to Erukhimova, she was pleasantly surprised by the number of people she was able to reach through her videos. According to her, the best part is the support she receives from her former students. “If you think about it, millions of people watch physics videos and enjoy them. It’s wonderful,” she said. “You can’t learn much from a short video; however, these can engage people and inspire them to learn more.”
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