Super hero Science & Harry Potter trivia at the library

Ever wish that on your eleventh birthday an owl would have flown through your window, with letter in beak, letting you know that you were a wizard after all and you were, in fact, going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, much like one of your favorite fiction characters Harry Potter? Or that you could swing through the city using only your spider webs to keep you suspended in the air like Marvel’s Spider-Man? If you answered yes to either question, then the San Marcos Public Library has some programs for you.

Potterheads will have a chance to display their acumen and breadth of knowledge about the magical world of Harry Potter at the Harry Potter Trivia Night from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on  Wednesday, July 31 — the birthday of the wizarding world’s hero. 

Bring a team of no more than four players to test your trivia knowledge. Scores will be tracked using Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform. Kahoot can either be downloaded on a smartphone or the library will provide a Chromebook to use for logging trivia answers. Teams that answer correctly quicker, will be awarded more points. There will be only one device per team. Prizes will be awarded to the first place team.

Attendees can wear their preferred Hogwarts house’s colors and the library will have custom buttons available for free. Snacks will also be provided by the library. The trivia night is open to Potterheads of all ages.

“Harry Potter just appeals to everyone, so I think it’ll be really cool to see a room of 10 year olds and 40 year olds, that all love Harry Potter,” Programming and Outreach  Librarian Pamela Carlisle said. “It just brings all ages together. There’s not many things that bridge generations like that.”

On Friday, July 26 at 2 p.m. the library will host Dr. Ben Martin, of Texas State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, to show the science behind superheroes. 

Science is the field for answering and asking questions; questions like how could spider silk support Spider-Man’s weight, how are Wolverines claws able to cut through other metals or how Thor’s hammer could be so heavy. 

He’ll cover those questions with real life science experiments as well as how Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth was invented by William Moulton Marston, the inventor of the lie detector. He’ll demonstrate how super jumpers like Superman and Hulk, have similar qualities to the flea, also a super jumper — though less heroic.

Martin said fiction isn’t as removed from the world of science as would be believed; because science is what brings what was once in the imagination to life.

“I think the people that invented these stories loved science, they loved thinking about what is possible and science is how we make the imagination possible,” Martin said.

Superhero Science is for ages 3 and up. Attendees are encouraged to dress as their favorite superhero.

All library programs are free and open to the public. For more information on any library events, call 512-393-8200.