Physics Olympics

The St. Peter’s School Physics Olympics Competition for year 8 pupils first took place in 2007 and has grown form 17 teams in the first year to 25 in 2010. The competition is open to all schools and attracts teams from as far away as Newcastle in the North East and Bury in the North West. Any school interested in entering next years event or who would like to find out further details should contact d.morris@st-peters.york.sch.uk
 
 
 
The competition has six individual events, five of which are similar in style to a mini Egg Race and take about 30 minutes each, with the last exercise being a nearest power of ten Fermi Quiz that is ongoing throughout the day. There are prizes for the six individual event winners and the overall first, second and third placed teams and also mementos of the day for all who have been involved.

The day is primarily about measurement - the highest, the quickest, the closest etc. It is about precision of measurement - to the nearest mm, the nearest 0.01s and also about estimation where quantities are roughly estimated to the nearest power of 10. eg what is the volume of toothpaste that is used in the UK in a year. It is also about scale with the pupils thinking about atoms on the microscopic scale (10-10m) up to distances to the nearest star (1016m). It is also about teamwork and communication skills with pupils having to work together to complete a task against the clock.

The day is designed primarily to be fun, but also challenging and stimulating and of course there is, in the Olympic spirit, an element of competition with Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners. The aim is that pupils come away having both enjoyed their experience and also having learnt some physics.
 
The competition has regularly received generous backing form the Institute of Physics and the Rotary Club of York Vikings and this year the Ogden Trust, Taylors of Harrogate and Yorvik Electrical Contractors Ltd have also joined the team of sponsors. Sponsorship money has paid for the T-shirts, medals, trophy, water bottles, memory sticks and books that the pupils take away at the end of the day.

Click here to view photos of the Physics Olympics 2010