With the help of a staffer from the sailing center (far left), students prepare a boat for launch. (Joe Wilensky / Cornell University) Campus & Beyond New Course Sets Sail on Understanding Physics—by Boat Stories You May Like By the Deep Blue Sea, an Idyllic Spot for Teaching and Research American Sign Language Has Found a Growing Home on the Hill All Aboard! ‘Observation Trains’ Offered Mobile Views of Crew Races Students venture out onto Cayuga Lake for hands-on learning about wind speed, velocity, buoyancy, and more By Joe Wilensky Georg Hoffstaetter de Torquat stands tall in the boat, one hand on the mast, his gaze fixed on a spot across the water. A warm September breeze has just changed direction on Cayuga Lake. “One of the things I love best about sailing is that it feels like you’re in the grip of nature,” he says, “because the forces that act on you come directly from the wind. It’s amazing.” He then turns his attention back to the handful of students on the small sailboat with him and on the several other boats clustered nearby. It’s time for another series of measurements for the day’s hands-on lesson. For Hoffstaetter de Torquat, the lake is his classroom. Hoffstaetter de Torquat is a physics professor, and he can typically be found researching particle accelerator technology, whether for the Electron-Ion Collider project at Brookhaven National Laboratory or other applications like spectrometers and electron microscopes. But for the fall 2024 semester, he is also teaching a new course, the Physics of Sailing—marrying his academic field with his lifelong love of the water. One of the things I love best about sailing is that it feels like you’re in the grip of nature. Professor Georg Hoffstaetter de Torquat The twice-weekly class is taught partly in the classroom and partly out on the water (based out of the University’s Merrill Family Sailing Center). Until fall break, sessions alternated between the lake and the classroom, then moved fully indoors. While elementary math and physics knowledge is a prerequisite, sailing experience is not—and the seven students who signed up for the course’s first iteration were all novices. Students learn to sail on Cayuga’s waters. As Hoffstaetter de Torquat explains, almost every aspect of sailing is affected—and can be demonstrated—by elementary physics. The course, he says, “gives us the opportunity to explain and measure concepts like forces, torques, and oscillations—not in the abstract, but after you perceive them physically on the boat.” The first couple of classes covered details of boat and water safety and other basics. (Life jackets are required, and all students need to have passed the famed Cornell swim test.) Geoff Miller ’25 adjusts the rigging. Early safety lessons include docking, water rescues, how to slow down a boat against the wind, and procedures to avoid a capsize. Students learn how to put up sails and rigging—including making knots and using winches and pulleys—get the boats out of the dock, conduct experiments, and collect data. Once students grasp the basics, the physics lessons begin. The curriculum covers propelling and resistive forces, hull speed and water waves, real and apparent wind velocity, weather formations, and more. Photo: Matt Jensen / Cornell Athletics; graphic: Caitlin Cook / Cornell UniversityBalancing forces reach an equilibrium to keep a sailboat upright. On this particular afternoon—which featured gorgeous skies, balmy temperatures, and a glorious view of the Cornell skyline, truly “far above” the lake—the class was carrying out a basic physics and nautical exercise: how to check a boat’s stability. Stories You May Like By the Deep Blue Sea, an Idyllic Spot for Teaching and Research American Sign Language Has Found a Growing Home on the Hill On each boat, the students dropped the sails; two people gripped the mast while another readied a smartphone timer. After rocking the craft as far as possible from side to side, they let it stabilize in order to measure what’s known as its free rolling period. (That's the time it takes for the mast to completely swing from one side of the boat to the other, until, after several oscillations, it has returned to its upright position.) Rocking the boat: Hands-on data collection. “Basically, a boat is like a pendulum,” Hoffstaetter de Torquat says. “Its center of gravity oscillates as the boat rolls back and forth.” If the corresponding pendulum were too short, he explains, the boat could easily capsize. Measuring that rolling period, with calculations that take into consideration the boat’s dimensions and shape, lets the students assess its overall stability and safety. One student in the class, Geoff Miller ’25, happens to be the captain of the Big Red men’s heavyweight rowing team. New to sailing, he says the course has given him a broader comprehension not only of physics, but also his sport. “It has been fun understanding how to use wind instead of not using wind, because wind is usually the enemy when it comes to rowing,” he says with a laugh. “Like learning to sail upstream—it’s about using the jib and the mainsail to actually use that wind for you.” It has been fun understanding how to use wind instead of not using wind, because wind is usually the enemy when it comes to rowing. Geoff Miller ’25 Hoffstaetter de Torquat comes from a long line of watersports aficionados: his grandfather was thrice the German rowing champion and competed in the 1928 Olympics. His parents met in a rowing club, and his brother and daughter row as well. As a grad student at Michigan State, Hoffstaetter de Torquat took a “physics of sailing” class that ended up being more about learning to sail and far less about science—but it gave him the idea for this course, he says. The professor finds beauty in the description of how a sailboat stays upright while moving forward; as he explains, the forces acting on it essentially negate each other. Students take down the sails after docking their boat. “The vertical forces of weight and buoyancy cancel,” he says, “and the sail and hull provide lateral forces to the right and left of the boat’s direction, and they also cancel each other.” Young Jae “YJ” Lee ’26, an information sciences major, found the class when browsing for a physics course. “It’s my first time sailing, and I’m not a ‘physics guy’—but it sounded really interesting,” he says. “Everything is pretty new to me, but the coolest thing has been learning the mechanisms of how the wind affects the speed of the boat.” Out on the lake the following week, the class has returned for another outing; the weather is once again nearly ideal. Lee (left) and Miller assess wind speed. After just a few course sessions on the water, the formerly novice students are adept at prepping the boats, sails, and rigging, and sound like they’ve been seafaring for years. “The mainsail—you have to make sure it’s tight,” Miller says while readying another maneuver and giving instructions to a shipmate. “Or, if you’re trying to turn the boat around, you want to make sure you keep the jib close and make sure the helms are ready. There are a lot of things you have to manage—you just have to be aware of everything.” Top: With the help of a staffer from the sailing center (far left), students prepare a boat for launch. All photos by Joe Wilensky / Cornell University unless otherwise indicated. Published November 6, 2024 Comments Christian K., Class of 2000 12 Nov, 2024 Love this on so many levels! Thanks for sharing. Reply Don Paddock, Class of 1967 12 Nov, 2024 What a wonderful way to learn physics in such a hands on manner. Having sailed on vessels from a small sailing dinghy to an ocean capable cruiser I have learned to appreciate how physics makes it all work. And the setting of Cayuga Lake is ideal for this course. Reply Alax, Class of 2015 14 Nov, 2024 Combining hands-on experience with real-world applications out on Cayuga Lake makes these concepts so much more tangible. Observing principles like wind speed, velocity, and buoyancy directly while navigating a boat is bound to make the learning experience memorable and impactful. This approach not only engages students but also fosters a deeper understanding of physics by seeing it in action. Plus, it’s a fantastic way to make science adventurous and fun! Reply klaas van Wijk 14 Nov, 2024 Sounds like a great class. As a former sailing instructor and sailing enthusiast, I would be happy to volunteer to TA (the non-physics portion) in this class! Reply Tim Lynch, Class of 1990 28 Nov, 2024 Wow, where was this class when I was taking a ton of physics in the late ’80s? Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Campus & Beyond Stemming the Tide of Textile Waste Cornelliana The Hill in Haiku: Alumni Wax Poetic about their Alma Mater Bear Hugs How an Afghan Grad Student Made It to the Hill