How many seagulls would really be needed to carry Dahl's Giant Peach? By multiplying its density by its volume, and using Newton's famous second law of motion, they arrived at a figure of 4,890,579 Newtons - the amount of force it would take to move the peach. Next, they worked out how much weight each seagull could lift based on its wingspan, the density of air around it and the speed it would travel. They calculated this at just over two Newtons - allowing them to work out how many it would take to lift the peach. Miss Watkinson added: "It showed us that 501 seagulls would be nowhere near enough to lift the peach, and that it would take much more - nearly 2.5 million seagulls to do this. We've all had a brilliant time working on this project. It's been lots of fun, and it's been great using Roald Dahl's story as inspiration. It's also helped show us how to write a proper scientific paper. Course leader Dr Mervyn Roy, a lecturer at the university's department of physics and astronomy, said: "A lot of the papers we published are on subjects that are amusing, topical, or a bit off-the-wall. Our students are nothing if not creative. But, to be a research physicist you need to show some imagination, and this is something that the module allows our students to practice.