This
year, SYP took part in a popular nation-wide physics competition
“eXperiments”, providing two out of five challenges for
contestants to solve in the finals, as well as entertaining the
supporters of the contestants with a small show, demonstrating a few
fun experiments.
The
first challenge for students competing was to build a stack of bricks
so as to have the top brick as far away from the edge of the table as
possible. The first brick is always prefectly aligned with the edge
of the table. In limited time, students had to demonstrate both
theoretical knowledge of the center of mass and also the ability to
simply determine the best configuration experimentally.
The
other challenge was to measure the temperatures in three given
containers with a thermometer that had no scale on it. Teams had
melting ice to calibrate at 0C
but they had to figure out where to get the other calibration point.
Some chose to stick the thermometer in their armpit and use standard
body temperature as their reference, some approximated room
temperature. All in all, it was a fun task to test students’
imagination and problem solving skills!
One
of our SYP team getting ready to do the show for supporters waiting
on their teams’ results
Each
region had its own finals, and the teams that won the competition
received valuable prizes, as well as a ticket to a summer camp. Soon,
our team will also visit there to give a few lectures and do some
experiments together with the brightest middle-schoolers.
