Physics Olympics World Wide
On Saturday the 17th of October, four St Hilda’s A Level Physics students competed in the 2009 Liverpool Physics Olympics. This annual event takes place at the Liverpool University. The Physics Olympics is an international event, held in other places around the world such as Yale (USA), Perth (Australia), Darmstadt, Koln and Munchen (Germany), as well as Padua, Italy.
The St Hilda’s team, Ulam, was one of the only two schools from the city to participate in the event. The four person team consisted of Lauren Bedford, Olivia Garland and Matthew Kam from Year 12, along with Rosemary Daley from Year 13.
Despite the fact that the Physics Olympics is seen as a competition based on the science of Physics, the day was filled with tasks that leaned more towards problem solving, logical thinking and team work with fragments of Physics here and there. The Year 12s accepted that they didn’t have enough knowledge due to having done only two months of A Level Physics but remained positive as they went through the challenges enthusiastically.
Yet, with team work and the leadersip of Rosemary, the team was able to successfully complete the tasks organised by the Liverpool University’s Department of Physics .
Seeing how smart and knowledgeable Rosemary is, the Year 12s realised that they too will be able to do these challenges as well as her by this time next year.
The day flew by quickly as team Ulam moved from one task to another.
The team went through the day enjoying each other's company, telling jokes and stories. The packed lunch consisted of the usual sandwich, a packet of crisps, bottled water and a piece of fruit and was considerably more edible than the usual unappetizing free lunch that one would get.
Realising that the actual motive behind the Physics Olympics is to have fun rather than winning, the team forgot all thoughts of winning and started enjoying the challenges as the day drew closer to an end.
The closing ceremony took place in the Chadwick Laboratory lecture theatre where the event began and included entertaining feedback on how the teams did in each challenge. Despite what the Ulam team thought, they did rather well.
Out of the thirty five teams, Ulam gained an overall tenth place. The team gained third place with a rather accurate answer for one of the hardest challenges. Prizes included t-shirts for the top three scorers in each challenge medals for the winners of each challenge and a trophy for the overall winning school. Each participant in the Liverpool Physics Olympics was presented with a commemorative mug.
The St Hilda’s Ulam team was more than happy and celebrated the next day with hot chocolate in their new mugs. The current Year 12s now know what challenges they are up against and are preparing themselves for ‘The Liverpool Physics Olympics 2010’.
For more information about the Liverpool Physics Olympics please visit: http://www.liv.ac.uk/physics/olympics
