Eberhard Zwergel is a legend. The German-born Senior Lecture Demonstrator in Chemistry, known to students simply as Eberhard, is the face behind the experiments in the general Chemistry sequence. Each year, he shows off his explosions to packed audiences at his Halloween show in Tech.
The show, which is put on during the Chemistry 101 and 171 classes, has been going on for more than a decade. Though in early phases it was simply experiments, it has since evolved to include dancing and music from student groups like the marching band, the Ladycats and Tonik Tap. Close to a thousand students attend his shows each year. His popularity has become a fire hazard, with people crowding into doorways and aisles just to catch a glimpse.
He coordinates the music and dance with what is going on with his demonstrations, which involve exploding methane, dust and gasses. In one experiment, he vaporizes a small amount of methanol by shaking it in a five gallon bottle. Then, he drops a match into the bottle, causing a flash of blue and a loud swishing noise as the gas explodes, rushing out of the neck of the bottle.
In addition to chemical explosions, the show will include aspects of biology and physics, like glow worms and an appearance by physics professor Art Schmidt.
“I try to get other disciplines involved,” Zwergel says. “I wanted it to be a little more than just an equation.”
But even he doesn’t know what the secret to his success is.
“It’s hard to tell [why it’s so popular]. I’m not 100 percent sure,” he says. “You know, you’re not quizzed on anything, you don’t have to write an exam about it; it’s just for joy. Maybe that’s why.”
Weinberg junior Margaret Yu is the president of the Undergraduate Chemistry Council, which provides volunteers to help with the show’s planning and the demonstration. She first began working with Zwergel as a freshman, helping to plan his spring chemistry show.
“Eberhard does a really good job of not only having chemistry, but he incorporates music, he incorporates dance, and he even has his little competition with Professor Schmidt from Physics,” she says. “The atmosphere that Eberhard creates — it’s almost magical sometimes.”
Though not everyone that attends knows the chemistry behind the show, Zwergel stresses that it’s strictly science. He makes all the experiments himself, with the help of volunteers from the Undergraduate Chemistry Council.
“People think sometimes it’s a magic show, but it isn’t,” he says. “It is magical, but not magic. That’s how I think about it, at least.”
Donna Hassani, a Weinberg sophomore, tried to attend the Eberhard Halloween show last year as part of her regular chemistry class. “It was so packed I couldn’t get into my own lecture,” she says.
“They kind of explain the chemistry, but most people don’t come for the chemistry. So it’s basically just watching things blow up.”
The experiments are mostly based off demonstrations Zwergel has performed in class. “For example, you make liquid iron and it’s amazing. Or like magnesium burns in dry ice,” he explains. “The way I do it and the amount, you can’t see that every day.”
Both Yu and Hassani say their favorite part of the show was the exploding balloons, which Yu could hear from across the building last year. “At the end, he has progressively bigger explosions, and the last one kind of blinds you and makes you deaf a little bit. So that part is fun,” Hassani says.
For Eberhard, the main goal of the event is fun for everyone. He says he hopes that he can leave the audience appreciating chemistry a little more than when they arrived, but he does the show mostly because people are enthusiastic about it. “It should get you thinking, get you going, get you interested and awake, hopefully,” Zwergel says.
And as Hassani explains, Eberhard’s Halloween show has become part of the campus culture. “I think it’s one of those traditions at Northwestern where it’s like, ‘I go to Northwestern — oh, have you gone to the Eberhard show?’ That type of thing.”
The Eberhard Halloween show will be held for free at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29 in Tech LR3.