With Halloween a day away, Boston University’s Physics Department went back to the roof. More than 30 pumpkins plunged about 70 feet from the top of the Metcalf Science Center onto Metcalf Plaza on Friday afternoon, NBC Boston and Boston 25 News reported.
Each pumpkin carried a different filling, from paint to whipped cream, NBC Boston reported. BU Today says the fillings usually range from pudding to paint. Students and staff, some in costume, gathered on Commonwealth Avenue to watch them burst.
Gravity takes center stage
The department says the event is both “a festive spectacle around Halloween” and a lesson in gravitation, velocity and energy transition “from potential kinetic to explosion,” according to NBC Boston.
A quick back-of-the-envelope check shows why the pumpkins split open. Ignoring air resistance, an object dropped from 70 feet hits the ground in a little over two seconds at roughly 45 mph. That is the classroom formula, not a BU measurement, and real pumpkins slow slightly as they fall.
Band, cider and compost
The BU Pep Band played before the drop, and the department’s event listing promised tunes and cider for early arrivals. BU Sustainability planned to compost the pumpkins afterward, according to Boston 25 News and WCVB.
A long-running tradition
NBC Boston and Boston 25 News described this year’s event as the 19th annual drop. BU Today, in a Friday “Flashback” photo of professor emeritus of physics William Skocpol preparing for the 2006 drop, said the department has hosted the event around Halloween for more than a quarter century.
Sources
- NBC Boston: Boston University pumpkin drop (Oct. 30, 2026)
- Boston 25 News: Smashing science: Pumpkins plunge 70 feet in Boston University Halloween tradition (Oct. 30, 2026)
- WCVB: Boston University hosting annual pumpkin drop from science building (Oct. 30, 2026)
- BU Today: Flashback Friday: Smashing Pumpkins (Oct. 30, 2026)
- BU Today Events: BU Pumpkin Drop (Oct. 30, 2026)