Students smash pumpkins in the name of physics

SALT LAKE CITY — Peering over the edge of the school roof, physics teacher Dennis Pedersen balanced an orange pumpkin in his arms and grinned.
More than a dozen students waited on the ground below with fingers crossed. With a quick countdown, Pedersen dropped the pumpkin from the two-story building.
High school seniors Erick Holloway and Shane Hepworth cheered as the pumpkin splashed into their homemade pumpkin catcher: a garbage bin full of water and laundry soap.
Hepworth fished the suds