NEWSLETTER – July 23th 2012 Issue nO.9
Photo: Andres Mihkelson
The Celebration Day!
Different emotions made the air colourful
B
efore the start of the football match the air was thick with excitement and tension. It seemed like everyone was feeling good, as the day began with a warm-up. IPhO press asked how the Hong Kong team were feeling. At first sight they were rather quiet. Were they nervous? “Actually, yes, I am,“ admitted one from the Hong Kong team. “I’m sure anyone can beat us. In Hong Kong football is very popular, but we are still physicists!“ Do these geniuses have a role model? “Richard Feynman is a physicist and a supporter of good education. He stands for bringing up the next generation to do more and more physics research,“ the Hong Kong team mate replied confidently. We asked others who was their favourite physicist.Some in the Canada and USA teams also chose Feynman, but others thought that Newton deserved the title. As it was a day of football, we also asked
who were their favourite footballers. “Oh, we don’t really follow that thing,“ admitted many of the interviewees, who perhaps were not so knowledgeable about football than they were about physics. But fortunately there were teams who had their favourites France team went for Zinedine Zidane and Canada thought that Maradona was the best. But what do boys think of girls who play football? Should football be more popular among girls? The Canada and USA teams noted that football was more popular among girls back in their countries, thinking maybe here in Estonia it was not that popular. “Football is like any other sports, so if girls want to do it, we have nothing against it,“ said the Italy team. “It might be just a little unfair, if girls and boys played together, but there are girls teams too,“ added the Hong Kong team.
many countries of the America continent. “Usually we watch more American football, but soccer is more fun to play.“ The USA team also added that they actually played only soccer, even though they were from America. We asked participants how they liked such an event as a football match. The feedback was really positive. The students were glad that they were given such an opportunity, and some found it to be relaxing after the exams. Of course there were some nervous teams too, who thought that football was not as comfortable as physics. Everyone still seemed to enjoy the football day, no matter that you could often not see the balls flying towards people. After the game competitors were very hot, but their faces glowed with happiness after their energetic encounters.
Soccer v American football “Soccer is really fun to play,“ thought the USA and Canada teams, although American football was more popular as it is played by
Text: Brenda Rauniste
Photo: Siim Pille
Physics makes girls curious
Experiments were marked
T
he second moderation gave the final scores for the experiments and also the overall results for the countries. Though grading experiments is trickier due to differently interpreted data, leaders told us that the grading went well. “We were actually even stricter than the markers,“ said Austrian leader Helmuth. Hungarian leader Peater added: “The markers gave us more points than we expected.“
Text: Saile Mägi
They described their studying methods: “Our teachers actually show us what laws mean and don´t stick to just pure theory.” Laura from Switzerland said: “I don´t feel a lot of pressure, I am just happy that I happened to be in the team. I think I am a little bit crazy, because I am actually even more interested in mathemathics,” she said revealing her biggest passion. Canadian girl Melody started to learn physics because she wanted to understand biology and chemistry better. Her friends and classmates find it quite natural that she likes science and maths, so no one is surprised by
it. Melody added: “Certainly, if there were more programs for girls in physics, then that would get more of them interested.” The Suriname girls said: “In Suriname girls can be even more involved in physics than boys,“ Lots of girls were good at physics in their country, they asserted. “We live in the 21st century, boys and girls are born equally don´t think gender should be a factor that stops you from doing anything,” said Priya confidently. Text: Liisi Sünd
Photo: Merily Salura
I
t is quite rare to see girls in such a male-dominated event like physics olympiads. However, believe it or not – there are girls who simply adore physics! During the football tournament we had a chance to get to know these special participants better. “I started studying physics at school as a little girl,“ said Frederica Maria from the Italian team. Physics problems have attracted her ever since, because she loves the feeling she gets after solving a problem. The girls from Kuwait are interested in physics, because they find it easy at school.
Photo: Siim Pille Photo: Henry Teigar
Picture gallery
Look how high I can jump.
Photo: Henry Teigar
Photo: Henry Teigar
Victory dance.
Are you sure you can pass this guy?
Seizing the moment.
Photo: Henry Teigar
Photo: Henry Teigar
Let’s hit it together.
Would you like to dance?
Photo: Henry Teigar
Photo: Andres Mihkelson Photo: Siim Pille
Who will make it first?
You keep getting on my way.
My legs are longer.
Happy Birthday!
Photo: Henry Teigar
Rasmus Kuusmann
Sung-Won KIM What are you doing?
Feynman’s Corner Coffee foam (solution) The foam consists of a large number of bubbles; each bubble surface refelects part of the light back, and a large number of bubbles reflect back all the light. So, the foam is white, because it reflects the daylight into our eyes. However, before coming into our eyes, this light passes a small layer of coffee which makes the originally white light creamy. A smart hit (solution) Mirror S from OA to get S’, then mirror S’ from OB to get S’’. Then connect S’’ and S by a straight line and fold the line SS’’ back to the corner ÐAOC by reflections from OB and OA. This is also the shortest path from S back to S touching both walls.
Clouds Have you noticed that the lower boundary of clouds is flat, but the upper boundary is “puffy”. Why? Clouds (solution) When well-mixed humid air ascends, it cools down due to adiabatic expansion. The extent of expansion and hence the temperature is defined directly by the height of the air parcels. When the air temperature falls below the dew point (dependent on the air humidity), a mist is formed – this is a point where a parcel passes a lower boundary of the cloud. Since all the air parcels have the same humidity, this happens for all the parcels at the same height, so the lower boundary is flat. The mist ascends further due to turbulent rising air currents, and so the upper boundary of the cloud is defned by the turbulent pattern of the air currents – this is random and “puffy”.