During the pandemic, the format of class instruction changed from in-person to entirely remote. What does a group that provides physics demonstrations to lecturers to supplement instruction do to continue to offer the same level of access to our catalog? We digitize! Working with instructors to identify their needs, we provided short videos of demonstrations performed in various ways. By using multiple cameras, professional editing software, strategic planning, and youtube we have compiled a physics demo video library accessible to the world. Here is what we learned on our journey.

We created a cheap but exciting lobby demonstration focusing on Conservation of Energy.  We used a looped Hot Wheels ® Track normally powered by batteries and replaced the batteries with a hand crank. The participants are asked to convert their chemical energy to electrical energy and observe the electrical energy being converted to mechanical energy. Then the participants are challenged to determine the minimum amount of hand crank that gives the car enough energy to fully loop the track. They are also asked what happens to the excess energy when they provide more than the minimum amount of energy the car needs to complete a loop. Participants can then compete with one another to determine who has the skills to produce the most consecutive loops.