Physics competitions

FYKOS is the internet physics competition, open to all students of age less than 19 years with an interest in physics.  It is organized by the faculty of  Mathematics and Physics at  Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. At present most of the participants are from the Czech Republic.

Participants in this physics competition receive a set of problems six times a year.  They then have to find a solution, idea and comments  for the problems within one year.

Not all the problems are solvable, but the responses are graded and the students ranked

The Leonardo da Vinci Competition was a Canadian national competition that asked questions of an engineering nature and requiring skill in mathematics, physics and chemistry.

students with an interest in engineering are expected to participate in the competition and students who are interested in science and mathematics who have not considered a career in engineering may also participate.

The duration of the examination was 2 hours in length and consisted of 15 multiple-choice questions. It was be written at participating schools. The exam questions are prepared and reviewed by a committee of University of Toronto engineering professors.

The examination questions measured the ability of participants to solve engineering oriented problems. The questions draw on the content and concepts from senior high school science and mathematics courses. However, some questions required concepts beyond those subjects. The examination was designed to be suitable for students in both semestered and non-semestered schools.

The Physics Olympiad Screening Exam is conducted every year to help select members for the United State Physics Team for the Internal Physics Olympiad.

The Preliminary Screening Exam consists of thirty multiple choice questions with a a time limit of forty minutes and four creative response questions with a time limit of one hour for answering the questions.

The two hundred students with the highest score on the Preliminary Screening Examinations qualify for the  Semi-Final Exam.  The Semi-Final Examination consists of six problems and has a time limit of 180 minutes for solving the problems.

The problems at  the International Physics Olympiad are usually from the syllabus prescribed, and if a problem is from outside the syllabus, sufficient information will be provided to the students.
All problems are set in SI units

The theoretical part consists of :
1. Mechanics including Newton’s laws, inertial systems, conservation of energy , friction, Centripetal acceleration
2.Mechanics of Rigid Bodies - moment of inertia,center of mass, torque
3.Thermodynamics and Molecular Physics - internal energy, work and heat, first and second laws of thermodynamics,pressure and molecular kinetic energy
4. Oscillations and waves - Harmonic waves, propagation of waves
5. Electric Charge and Electric Field - Conservation of charge, Coulomb’s law, Gauss’ law
6. Current and Magnetic Field - Current, resistance, internal resistance of source, Ohm’s law, Kirchhoff’s laws, Ampere’s law
7. Electromagnetic waves
8. Quantum Physics - Photoelectric effect, energy and impulse of the photon
9. Relativity
10. Matter - Energy levels of atoms and molecules

Practical part

The practical examination assumes that the student is proficient in the theoretical part. The participant should be familiar with simple laboratory instruments and devices such as calipers, thermometers, simple voltmeters, ohmmeters and ammeters, potentiometers, diodes, transistors, simple optical devices.

With proper instructions, they should be able to handle even more complicated instruments,

International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is an annual physics competition for secondary school students . It is held in a different country every year and open to students worldwide. The International Physics Olympiad is one the International science  Olympiads and was first held in 1967 at Warsaw in Poland.

For most countries participating in the International Physics Olympiad, the student delegates for the country are selected after a national level competition. The team consists of five participants, two leaders and may be accompanied by observers.

The students delegates have to individually sit for rigorous theoretical and practical examinations based on a syllabus which is predefined. The theoretical examinations last for 5 hours. Based on their performance, students are awarded a gold, silver, bronze medals or an honorable mention. A relative grading system is used.

There are a lot of physics competitions held at the school and high level, but the competitions at the college are more time consuming and are fewer in number since only a small number of school students study physics in high school.

Most of the major universities like MIT, University of Pennsylvania in USA  conduct competitions in physics and related technical subjects for students.
MIT , Caltech are other tech schools usually have a robotic competition annually. The practical application of physics principles is tested.

Knowledge of mathematics is needed to study Physics.  Mathematics is one of the main subjects taught in schools worldwide and covers almost every aspect of our life. It tries to understand patterns, use them to formulate theories and test them rigorously. In it simplest form, mathematics involves using a set of rules called axioms to derive the results of following the rules - the theorems. Unlike science, which describes the physical world and can be tested, mathematics is abstract and can be checked only using logical rules.

The word mathematics is derived from the Greek word “mathema” for study or learning. In colloquial English, it is called Math (American English) and Maths (rest of the world). Mathematics evolved as a series of abstractions over a period of time. The first abstraction was numbers, followed by arithmetic. Most early developments were related to commerce and taxation, as it was necessary to calculate and track payments made and received accurately.

Pure mathematics is an abstract field related solely to axions and theorems. Applied mathematics is the use of mathematics in other fields like engineering, economics, medicine, natural science. Some fields like computer science are derived from applied mathematics

Information on Physics competitions

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