When biologists tell stories of their childhoods, they’re full of trails of ants and fireflies in jars. Lots of writers start young, telling stories on the playground and making skits with their friends. And the mere existence of “chemistry sets” tells you exactly how many chemists get started. Many fields have these “gateway hobbies”, like gateway drugs for careers, ways that children and teenagers get hooked and gain experience.

Physics is a little different, though. While kids can play with magnets and electricity, there aren’t a whole lot of other “physics hobbies”, especially for esoteric corners like particle physics. Instead, the “gateway hobbies” of physics are more varied, drawing from many different fields.

First, of course, even if a child can’t “do physics”, they can always read about it. Kids will memorize the names of quarks, read about black holes, or watch documentaries about string theory. I’m not counting this as a “physics hobby” because it isn’t really: physics isn’t a collection of isolated facts, but of equations: frameworks you can use to make predictions. Reading about the Big Bang is a good way to get motivated and excited, it’s a great thing to do…but it doesn’t prepare you for the “science part” of the science.

A few efforts at physics popularization get a bit more hands-on. Many come in the form of video games. You can get experience with relativity through Velocity Raptor, quantum mechanics through Quantum Chess, or orbital mechanics through Kerbal Space Program. All of these get just another bit closer to “doing physics” rather than merely reading about it.

One can always gain experience in other fields, and that can be surprisingly relevant. Playing around with a chemistry set gives first-hand experience of the kinds of things that motivated quantum mechanics, and some things that still motivate condensed matter research. Circuits are physics, more directly, even if they’re also engineering: and for some physicists, designing electronic sensors is a huge part of what they do.

Astronomy has a special place, both in the history of physics and the pantheon of hobbies. There’s a huge amateur astronomy community, one that both makes real discoveries and reaches out to kids of all ages. Many physicists got their start looking at the heavens, using it like Newton’s contemporaries as a first glimpse into the mechanisms of nature.

More and more research in physics involves at least some programming, and programming is another activity kids have access to in spades, from Logo to robotics competitions. Learning how to program isn’t just an important skill: it’s also a way for young people to experience a world bound by clear laws and logic, another motivation to study physics.

Of course, if you’re interested in rules and logic, why not go all the way? Plenty of physicists grew up doing math competitions. I have fond memories of Oregon’s Pentagames, and the more “serious” activities go all the way up to the famously challenging Putnam Competition.

Finally, there are physics competitions too, at least in the form of the International Physics Olympiad, where high school students compete in physics prowess.

Not every physicist did these sorts of things, of course: some got hooked later. Others did more than one. A friend of mine who’s always been “Mr. Science” got almost the whole package, with a youth spent exploring the wild west of the early internet, working at a planetarium, and discovering just how easy it is to get legal access to dangerous and radioactive chemicals. There are many paths in to physics, so even if kids can’t “do physics” the same way they “do chemistry”, there’s still plenty to do!