United States Physics Team Blog (AAPT)

The Physics Team Travelers in Thailand

2011-07-12T13:54:00.007-04:00

First to arrive!
Watch the Opening Ceremony at http://www.ipho2011.org/intro_movie

Switching signs!!

Coach Paul Stanley visiting the Turtle Conservancy

US Physics Team Travelers at the White House

2011-07-12T13:44:00.002-04:00

The Travelers and coaches were invited to tour the White House.

2011 U.S. Physics Team Visits Washington D.C.

2011-05-25T20:39:00.002-04:00

Hello, I'm Brian Zhang, a senior from Palo Alto, CA and a member of this year's U.S. Physics Team. This year, AAPT is asking students to post about the camp experience on this blog. So I guess I'll start off!

Since we arrived at College Park, Maryland on May 20, most days have been pretty packed with physics. Our schedule starts with getting up at 7 am for breakfast at the hotel, after which we take a bus over to University of Maryland for our morning classes. They are taught by our wonderful coaches: Paul, Dave, JiaJia, Andrew, and Marianna. In the afternoon, we've had a 2-hour theoretical exam every day, as well as some lab instruction from Warren and QiuZi. Soon, we'll be ramping up the exams - we're taking our five-hour exam in two days and will also be starting "Mystery Labs" tomorrow.

But today, we got a delightful day off from physics to visit Washington D.C.! Upon arriving at the Capitol, we split up into groups to meet our congressional representatives. My group consisted of a bunch of Californians as well as Paul, Dave, and JiaJia. We were able to arrange meetings with three of our representatives: David Dreier, Tammy Baldwin, and Henry Waxman. It was exciting to see inside their offices and ask them a few questions about what happens in Congress.

At 1 pm, we had a special meeting with Representative Rush Holt from New Jersey, the only physicist currently in Congress. He spoke to us about the importance of science education for fostering a unique way of thinking and asking questions. We then had a break during which we visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Then at 5 pm, we were able to meet with Carl Wieman in the White House Conference Center. Mr. Wieman, a Nobel prize-winning physicist who now works on Science and Technology Policy, talked about his research on science education and his views on what it takes to be a good physicist.

And finally, a visit to Washington D.C. isn't complete without a stop at the Albert Einstein bronze statue! Below you can see pictures of all 20 of us piled on his lap and shoulders and more.

2011 U.S. Physics Team poses in front of the Albert Einstein memorial in D.C.
Group picture in front of the Capitol!
Rush Holt speaks to this year's U.S. Physics Team on the steps of the Capitol.
Some members of this year's Physics Team. (I'm at the very left.)

2010 U.S. Physics Team Welcomed to Camp

2010-05-28T10:52:00.002-04:00

College Park, MD, May 24, 2010—They came from Iowa and Ohio, Oregon and Massachusetts. Five came from California, two from New Jersey, and one from Connecticut. Students from the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the Southwest, and the Pacific coast are beginning ten days of rigorous academic training, interactive learning, and friendship building as they prepare to test themselves on the world stage.

They are the top twenty high school physics students in the United States, selected through an examination process that included such upper level skills as the Lagrangian Formula of Mechanics, Differential Calculus for Electricity and Magnetism, and Complex Variables, skills usually learned at the end of the undergraduate experience.

They were welcomed to the University of Maryland, College Park campus by AAPT Executive Officer, Warren Hein and AIP Executive Director, Fred Dylla. Officers and staff from AAPT, AIP, APS, and the University of Maryland were on hand for the camp kick off.

Meet the U.S. Physics team at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010/team.cfm. Get to know their coaches, Paul Stanley, Academic Director; Warren Turner, Senior Lab Coach; Qui Zi Li, Assistant Lab Coach; and Academic Coaches, Jia Jia Dong, David Fallest, and Andrew Linn at http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010/coaches.cfm.

In addition to learning a year of physics in two weeks, the team members will visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill, tour the National Air and Space Museum, and visit the Albert Einstein statue at the National Academy of Science. At the end of the camp, they will be tested again and five of the team members will be selected to travel to Zagreb, Croatia, representing the United States in the International Physics Olympiad, July 17 – 25, 2010.

Bringing Home the Gold: U.S. Physics Team Wins Four Gold Medals and One Silver Medal

2009-07-22T14:54:00.004-04:00

The students, from left to right, are Anand Nataranjan, Bowei Liu, David Field, Marianna Mao, and Joshua Oreman.
The proud coaches stand behind the students and are, from left to right Warren Turner and Paul Stanley.

The five student representatives of the United States Physics team won four gold medals and one silver medal at the 40th International Physics Olympiad held in Merida, Mexico in July of 2009. Students from China won five gold medals, coming in first on the overall medal count; while India and Korea also won four gold medals and one silver medal, tying for second with the United States on the overall medal count. Taiwan, Russia, and Romania each earned three gold and two silver medals. Countries winning at least two gold medals included Singapore, Kazakhstan and Japan; countries winning at least one gold medal included Thailand, Indonesia, Hungary, Hong Kong, Turkey, Serbia, Israel, Poland, and Slovakia.

The US team gold medal winners included Anand Nataranjan (with 14th highest theory score), Bowei Liu, Joshua Oreman (with 11th highest overall score), and Marianna Mao (with 6th highest experimental score). David Field won the silver medal. The overall highest score this year was Handuo Shi from China, marking the first time in the history of the Physics Olympiad that the top score was obtained by a female. Accompanying the US Physics Team to Mexico was Academic Director Paul Stanley of Beloit College and Senior Lab Coach Warren Turner of Westfield State College.

“They all did very well,” said Paul Stanley, Academic Director. “ Much of the success of the traveling five can be attributed to the collegial, supportive atmosphere of training camp; I thank each of the nineteen team members for working so hard to make this one of the best teams ever!”

The three theoretical problems this year included a question on the tidal drag affecting the moon, a question on laser cooling and optical molasses, and a question on the mass to radius ratio of stars and estimating a lower limit to the size of a star. The two experimental problems included measuring the wavelength of light using a razor blade and vernier calipers, and determining the index of refraction difference of a birefringent material. 316 students from about 70 countries took part in the examination.

The US physics team has participated in the International Physics Olympiad since 1986. On four occasions the team has won four gold medals: in Australia (1995), Singapore (2006), Vietnam (2008), and Mexico (2009). The United States hosted the International Physics Olympiad in 1993. In 2010 the Olympiad will be held in Croatia.

Traveling to Merida Mexico for the 40th International Physics Olympiad were:
David Field, of Andover, MA, a sophomore at the Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, MA;

Bowei Liu, of Freemont, CA, a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;

Marianna Mao, of Freemont, CA, a senior at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;
Anand Natarajan, a senior at The Harker School in San Jose, CA;

Joshua Oreman, of Los Angeles, CA a senior at Harvard Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA;

Paul Stanley, Academic Director, Dobson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Beloit College;

Warren Turner, Senior Coach, Assistant Professor at Westfield State , College in Massachusetts.

The three graduating seniors will be going to Harvard (Marianna), MIT (Joshua), and Stanford (Anand) next year.

Go Team USA! Traveling Members of The U.S. Physics Team Are in Mexico to Compete in the International Physics Olympiad

2009-07-17T07:02:00.012-04:00

July 13, 2009, College Park, MD – The five students representing the U.S. Physics Team as the 2009 Traveling Team, and two of their coaches, are competing with high school students from 84 nations this week at the 40th International Physics Olympiad in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

The U.S. Traveling Team Representatives are:

David Field, of Andover, MA, a sophomore at the Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, MA;

Bowei Liu, of Freemont, CA, a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;

Marianna Mao, of Freemont, CA, a senior at Mission San Jose High School in Freemont, CA;

Anand Natarajan, of San Jose, CA, a senior at The Harker School;

Joshua Oreman, of Los Angeles, CA a senior at Harvard Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA.

The traveling team coaches are:
Paul Stanley, Academic Director, Dobson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Beloit College;
Warren Turner, Senior Coach, Assistant Professor at Westfield State College in Massachusetts.

The US Physics Team Traveling Representatives participated in a two-day mini-camp at the University of Maryland, College Park, where they reviewed problem solving skills and sharpened their laboratory skills. The mini-camp ended with a visit to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC where the students met with Antonio Ortiz-Mena, Head of Section Economic Affairs. The team members presented an art glass globe representing the world, as a gift to the people of Mexico during their embassy visit.

The Traveling Representatives arrived in Merida on July 11 and will spend the next week participating in a unique opportunity to meet with other high school students, demonstrate their abilities in physics, exchange experiences, and build cross-cultural contacts. They will have the opportunity to make new and lasting friendships with peers from all over the world; visit archeological sites full of ancient history; and to attend talks by world renowned scientists regarding interesting research in physics.

Team members will have the opportunity to add to the medals received by previous U.S. Physics Teams. Last year's team brought home one silver medal and four gold medals. This year's awards will be presented on July 19, 2009.

Life As A Camper

2009-05-27T13:27:00.005-04:00

At physics camp our daily traditions is to write the day of the week on the board because after a while we campers tend to lose track of time. I think the reason that happens is that we have so much fun here. What's been so remarkable about this camp isn't that 19 young students can have a great time together; that could happen anywhere. But here, unlike anywhere else, doing physics is our idea of fun, and I believe I speak for all of us when I say that the past 10 days have been some of the most exciting and rewarding days of our high school careers.

We've learned an incredible amount—that the Bernoulli effect is a lie, that IPHO is IHOP in Swahili, that E isn't always mc2 and that 2=2 isn't always 4. We've talked about the physics of Frisbees during breaks and gone out to play some amazing games of Ultimate at lunches. Our nights are alternately passed with water guns and problems sets. And we’ve annoyed the Hilton Inn staff to no end by spending dinner time testing the elastic modules of ice—in other words by engaging in ice-eating battles.

Though we've gone through dozens of high-level problems & worked through five challenging labs, I've never felt that the camp has been about setting up a competitive atmosphere for team spots. This is thanks in large part to our wonderful coaches who have challenged us, tested our limits, and drawn out our potential. Camp has been more about showing us that we each have the ability to succeed—that given a little push, we can all discover more about and better understand the world we live in. These are valuable lessons we’ll all benefit from not just in the short term but also in the long term whether or not we decide to pursue physics in college.

The purpose of this reception today is not only to honor the 19 students here, but also to express our gratitude towards those who have made everything possible for us—coaches, sponsors, teachers, family, friends, and the dedicated members of AAPT. Thank you for believing in us and for helping us reach where we stand today.

—Mariana Mao

2009 US Physics Team Training Camp: U.S. High School Students Prepare for International Competition

2009-05-15T15:56:00.004-04:00

College Park, MD (May 15, 2009). The top U.S. High School Students will convene this week at the University of Maryland for ten days of physics education, friendship building and fun as they prepare and compete to represent the 2009 U.S. Physics Team at the 40^th International Physics Olympia to be held this year July 12-19 in Merida Yucatan, Mexico.

The coaches for the 2009 U.S. Physics team are: Paul Stanley, Academic Director/Senior Coach, Warren Turner, Senior Coach/Lab Coach, Andrew Lin, David Jones, and David Fallest. Training for the students will involve conducting lab experiments, taking exams, and hearing presentations from prominent scientists. At the end of the training camp, five students will be selected to travel to the Mexico for international competition.

The 2008 US Physics Team brought home one silver and four gold medals. Joshua Oreman, a 2008 gold medalist will be returning as a member of the 2009 US Physics Team.

The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The nine-day international competition brings together pre-university students from more than 60 nations. This year's event is sponsored by the Mexico Ministry of Education, the National Council of Science and Technology, and the Yucatan State Government with the support of the National University of Mexico, the National Polytechnical Institute, the Metropolitan Autonomous University, and the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research of San Luis Potosi. The 2009 International Physics Olympiad is being organized by the Mexican Physical Society, the University of Yucatan, and the Merida Campus of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnical Institute.

LIST OF EVENTS:

May 16-26 — Students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp.
May 26 — Five students chosen to represent the US at the international competition.
July 11 — Students arrive in Merida for the international competition.
July 19 — The International Competition's final awards given.

MORE ON THE WEB

Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2009/
History of the physics team, including past winners: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
The official website of the International Physics Olympiad: http://ipho2009.smf.mx/home

Four Golds and a Silver

2008-08-11T17:44:00.004-04:00

College Park, MD – The 2008 U.S. Physics Team returns home triumphant this week, having earned four gold medals and a silver medal at the International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi in Vietnam. Only the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, who tied for first, ranked higher than the U.S. team, which placed second along with South Korea and India.
The U.S. Physics Team’s gold medalists are:
Tucker Chan, Princeton High School, Princeton, NJ;
Danny Zhu, Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY;
Edward Gan, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD;
Joshua Oreman, Harvard Westlake School, North Hollywood, CA;
and its silver medalist is Rui Hu, The Charter School of Wilmington, DE.

Chan, Zhu, and Hu graduated from high school this past spring; Gan and Oreman have one more year to go.

Photos and student biographies are at http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/team.cfm?Winners=1

The international competition over, these students look toward a bright future. “Here is a side of America to celebrate,” said Charles Holbrow, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers. “Congratulations to the US Physics Team and their coaches. We should all be proud of these talented young people. And with the rest of the world, we should admire the achievements of all the Physics Olympiad participants. The sheer intellectual pleasure that radiates with youthful energy from their work together is a delight to behold.

Contact:
Martha Heil
American Institute of Physics
301-209-3088
mheil@aip.org

Closing Ceremony Held Today

2008-07-28T14:01:00.006-04:00

US Physics Team with the Singapore Team at the Reception after the Closing Ceremony

US Physics Team at the Closing Ceremony

Back Row: (left to right) Paul Stanley, Warren Turner, Bob Shurtz

Front Row: (left to right) Rui Hu, Ed Gan, Tucker Chan, Josh Oreman, Danny Zhu

The closing ceremony of the 39th IPhO was held this afternoon. There were several speeches, several great performances - music and dance, and the awarding of medals. Our team received 4 gold and 1 silver medal. This is only the third time that the US has received 4 gold medals so we are very pleased with the results. There was a reception after the closing ceremony where we all had the chance to say good-bye to the friends that we made during the last 10 days.

Medals?

2008-07-27T20:05:00.002-04:00

We shall let Vietnam and the organizers make the official medal announcements, but, after worrying about the difficult exams, the coaches finally have the results.

The coaches are pleased.

Ha Long Bay

2008-07-27T19:58:00.002-04:00

The US team, riding on junks in HaLong Bay. We are the ones in the front of the boat dangling our legs off; in a moment, one of the crew will come and scold us and tell us to sit properly further back.

The boats remind us of motorcycles on the streets; so crowded, pushing and honking.

The bay, however, is magical. Ha Long? Not long enough.....

Afterwards we endure the long bus ride to return to Hanoi. The coaches go into meetings to talk about scores and medals.

2008-07-26T14:23:00.002-04:00

erm, soo.. the weirdest thing occurred just now. while danny and i are finishing singing "i want it that way" (dont ask), there was a knock on the door. when i opened it, a contestant from cyprus was standing right in front of the door, holding, in combination, the red HELP sign, and the white TOILET sign*, like this:

| HELP |
| TOILET |

it took me quite a while to figure out what he was doing, but when i finally realized he actually needed to use our bathroom, i let him in. so he went in there and did his business while his teammate taped all of this with a camera outside. when they finally left, we laughed about it for a while and decided to blog about it. ergo, birth of post #18 on the physteam blog

* those are the signs were intended to be used during the examinations in case we needed help with the equipment or needed to use the toilet

Halong Bay

2008-07-26T09:40:00.002-04:00

So today we went to Halong Bay, but first we needed to endure a 3 hour bus ride. Instead of letting the sleep deprived teams sleep at 6:00 in the morning, the bus guide wants us to play "games" and sing. This actually happens on nearly every bus trip, but it was really noticeable today because the trip to Halong Bay was so long. The trip was so long the US team made its first real purchase of food in Vietnam during the break in the trip. We bought a pack of 6 choco-pies (yes clones of the thing that hostess makes). Oh they were so good.

The games usually consist of the guide asking a riddle, and the teams on the bus competing to be the first to answer it. The guides of course understand that these are the best high school physicists in the world, so they ask us questions like "Where in the world does yesterday follow today?" See, the question incorporates the special theory of relativity, and the answer was "a dictionary". There were some other great questions as well.
"What's the saddest piece of clothing?"
"Why are dogs afraid to sit out in the sun?"
"What's the longest word in the English language?"
"In Oklahoma, you can't take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why?"
and like a bunch of other ones. Actually, we the tour guides didn't even get to ask us half the questions because the US team was so good at physics we knew the answer before the guides were done asking the questions. Yeah so the final score was like US: 11, UK: 4, rest of bus like 4 total. When the guides didn't feel like asking questions, we played Simon says for a while, and of course sang. The high point of that was probably our guide Quang singing a parody of James Blunt's you're beautiful.

The boats in Halong Bay were nothing like the ones we used to get to the Perfume Pagoda or to dodge the stalactites in the Eco-tourism centre. The boat we used for the Perfume Pagoda in particular was solid metal, floated about an inch above water level, and was powered by a 10 hoursepower, 4 cylinder, old lady. The coaches will probably post a picture of teh Halong boats pretty soon, but they were pretty standard two story group sightseeing boats. As a whole, these boats were more comfortable but less satisfying than the smaller boats we used in other trips because they were so high above water level.

The only place in Halong Bay that we actually made landfall on was the Heavenly palace grotto. The cave was incredibly big, and it was really eerie because fruity colored strip lighting was spread across the entire cave. Stalagmites and tites had fused so much that they formed dragon shaped statues. Hopefully the coaches will post pictures about the cave too, because it's kind of hard to describe its humongousness with words.

2008-07-25T13:24:00.003-04:00

so thursday was the experimental exam. everyone on the team felt like he did very well, so we, as a whole, were pretty satisfied with ourselves that day.

today, we went to 2 buddhist temples in the morning. the temples were dedicated to 2 very important kings in vietnam's history. the temperature was hot

in the afternoon, we had an excursion to the ecotourism center. the name is relatively deceiving since there is no physical center to visit; but rather, we were split up into small boats that could fit 4 people and 1 rower, and snaked through the caves of a very beautiful lakes in the mountains. the scenery was very unique, and some of us managed to achieve zen from the pleasurable imagery that is our surrounding. the caves, on the other hand, interrupted the peace by providing us with an action packed boat ride that involved a lot of stalagmite dodging, for the ceilings were very low. o yea, and the temperature was hot

in the evening, we had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Professor Friedman of MIT about particle physics. however, most of the team felt that the lecture could've been much better had there not been a vietnamese translator repeating what the professor said after every slide in vietnamese. (disclaimer: this is not a complaint about the vietnamese people. we love the vietnamese)

tomorrow we will go to halong bay. hopefully we'll have enough energy to blog with more detail than this post and put up some pictures as well.

peace

~~US Physics Team

Crushed by a rice pounding machine?

2008-07-24T01:26:00.003-04:00

A simple, but effective device.

A rice pounding machine. Ask any IPhO competitor how they really feel about such devices....

The US team meets with leaders to discuss strategies for the experimental exam. This picture is taken at the end of the day of the theoretical exam; the US team felt as if the exam was interesting yet quite challenging.

Bob's true colors?

2008-07-22T07:15:00.003-04:00

Although Coach Bob Shurtz claims to be a Michigan fan, he was all smiles when he found an original Vietnamese Silk outfit in a Buckeye theme. This, in a back alley of the silk village. what are the odds? You be the judge....

Opening ceremony

2008-07-22T07:08:00.003-04:00

The US Team, all smiles and eager to start the competition

A parade of teams, finishing with the US Team, followed by our hosts, Vietnam.

Talking with local fans- this one a graduate of a major US University- after the opening ceremony.

2008-07-22T06:40:00.000-04:00

owned

~rui

2008-07-19T23:42:00.003-04:00

today's schedule has been somewhat less eventful than our other days here in vietnam. we had breakfast at our usual time of 7 am, and then went right back to our rooms for a relaxed session of physics fun. obviously we did not study the entire time, as our alone times were periodically interrupted by the phone calls informing us of reporters waiting in the lobby, the actual interviews, and other general miscellaneous goof-off (this blog shaved off a little time as well). sometimes the phone rang to only yield a busy tone after it was answered, twice. so when the phone rang a third time, we picked up the phone with a greeting that consisted of what sounded like a tribal grunt. it turns out, as it usually does in situations like these, there was actually a live person on the other end of the line --- our student guide --- calling to inform us of yet another interview. that basically constituted our entertainment of the day.

~~actual members of the US Team

Off to the Perfume Pagoda

2008-07-19T07:54:00.002-04:00

We took a 2 hour bus trip to a small village, and then climbed into small boats and journeyed about one hour upstream into the hills.

The boats were paddled by healthy, strong women. Women about the same age as our grandmothers.

We had an Enlgish speaking guide- Thuc- who warned us not to shift in the boats, for fear that we would capsize them.

We climbed for about an hour, maybe one thousand or more vertical feet, although Paul's GPS said that we were only at and altitude of 92 feet. The view from the top was spectacular, and inside a cave at the peak was the temple.

We prayed for gold medals.

Then set sail back down stream. Sweaty, tired, and well fed; a lunch of Vietnamese delights in our stomachs. And, yes, the boats were lower in the water on the return trip.

Tomorrow is the official arrival day; the day after is the opening ceremony. In three days is the theoretiucal exam. Maybe we will get some studying in tonight.

2008-07-18T18:33:00.002-04:00

Wainting at the aiport in Los Angeles for the outbound flight. It is shortly after midnight, and we now realize that although we started the day on the morning of the 15th of July, we won't see another bed until the evening of the 17th!

We are greeted in hanoi by our student guide.

At the B-52 mueseum we are able to look at pictures of John McCain.

The traveling team at Lake Hoan Kiem in the old quarter of Hanoi. This is shortly before the fruit lady fiasco.

A busy first day

2008-07-18T10:03:00.002-04:00

Today was a busy day. We arrived in Hanoi yesterday morning, and we were greeted bby friendly Vietnamese hosts who escorted us to our hotels. And we do mean hotels; we thought that we would be staying in one hotel for the first three days, but instead we were divided up into three: one for the leaders, one for the observers, and one for the students.

The hotels are about 5 km apart, which is but a short 50,000 dong taxi ride. The taxi service is nice, but nothing compares to the pure adrenalin rush of trying to cross the streets through the sea of motorcycles. Some of us are pretty good at it: walk slowly, looking into the traffic, and steadily drift across three to six lanes of honking, swerving, belching honda motorcycles.

We survived that part. We weren't as lucky with the fruit ladies, who attacked us with such enthusiasm that before we knew it we had them taking pictures and giving us gifts of pineapple. Then they wanted out money. Not all of it, but certainly more than the pineapple was worth. Eventually we extricated ourselves from the predicament, with little more than a bruised pride. And several bags of rather juicy pineapple. And, we must confess, we were a few dong lighter.

We wandered through the dedicated streets of the old quarter, seeing shops and signs and smelling the odors of spicy cooking and glue and, you guessed it, motorcycle exhaust. They really are everywhere. Lunch was at a curry place. Tasty!

Then we went to see the prison where John McCain spent part of the war. The Hanoi Hilton. A prison built by the French, with walls topped with broken glass. We saw a real guillotine; and the cells where Vietnamese "radicals" were held in the early 1900's. And pictures of John McCain in the lake where his plane went down.

After that we had some more resting time at a coffee shop beside the lake. The flavored shakes are quite tasty, as is the Vietnamese coffee. Then a trip back to the hotels.

Tomorrow we venture on a day trip, complete with 4 mile hike and 2 hours of boat rides, to the perfume pagoda. Details soon....

2008-07-18T09:31:00.002-04:00

hokay, so, here's the Earth, and we are halfway across it. most of us are pretty exhausted right now, and the only thing that we can possibly concentrate on is commenting on the contents of this post. the vietnam experience has been great so far: our hotel rooms are comfortable, the food is more than edible, and our exposure to the vietnamese culture can be put simply as "adventurous." On our first day here, we discovered that the streets did not have designated pedestritan cross times. in other words, people who've made the unfortunate decision to tour on foot have to weave through the continuous traffic of motorcycles, cars, and buses, much like a virtual reality version of frogger --- minus the virtual part. (Rui has made some efforts to record the near-fatal process so you readers out there will have a better understanding of the situation). we can cross some of the "easy-level" streets now, and are on our way to becoming professional street bravers.

We spent our first two days in Vietnam walking through the downtown narrow streets near our hotel. We were all cautious about buying from street vendors until we were attacked by a pair of old ladies selling, pineapples. It was so bad, they would smash a cone hat on top of heads, stuff a bag of pineapple into our hands, and then urge us to take a picture. Amid shouts for FOTO-MONNEE Bob hands them a ten dollar bill. That basically meant we would spend the next 10 minutes trying to get the money back. By repeatedly telling the lady, in english and with a stern face, to give the money back Rui eventually managed to get one of the ladies to hand back a five. Rui also recognized that the pineapples we ended up with were actually, oh man, LEVEL-18 pineapples, and was kind enough to try and sell it back to the next street vendor we met. Anyway, we eventually ate them because the food was really hot at the indian restaurant, and the pineapples were pretty good.

when we've finally returned to the hotel, we learned that teams from some of the other nations have begun to arrive. we were able to have dinner with the Argentines, who are a new team at the competition this year. we also introduced ourselves to the dutch, the chileans, and the brazilians, and the list will hopefully increase tomorrow.

it's 9:20 in vietnamese time right now. we are reeeeeaaaally tired, causing some of our sentences to be grammatically incorrect and logically unsound. LOL WHAT THE RANDOM AI AM SO TIRED GG. this post will probably be edited tomorrow. vivre la revolution. this is the last word. crap.

The end of Mini-Camp

2008-07-15T17:29:00.005-04:00

The traveling team, just after lunch, before our departure to LAX. From left, is Ed, Tucker, Rui, Danny, and Joshua.

So, after four intense days of lab exercises, problems sessions, and a five hour theoretical exam, we are almost ready to depart to Vietnam. This morning we were up before 8 am with the painful realization that although today is the 15th of July, we won't see a bed again until the evening of the 17th of July.

The worst part about minicamp was the kludged lab equipment: the Iran experiment was held together with rubber bands, the battery for Spain was inconsistent, and the thin film for Singapore kept swamping the detector. And, during one of the five hour lab sessions, one of us had the hiccups, and kept distracting the rest of us.

The coaches, as usual, provide careful, kind, constructive guidance for our work. We worship them. Bob, Paul and Warren are really wonderful!

-the report from the traveling team......

Psst. None of us wrote that. It's all true (well, except for the worshipping part :-) ) and we are very thankful to the coaches for some great photography; we just wanted to clarify the true source of this post!

A Mental, Not a Physical, Face-Off

2008-05-24T14:15:00.001-04:00

College Park, MD (May 14, 2008) The United States is preparing its smartest students to face the challenge of meeting physics students from all over the world in a brain-to-brain competition.

Twenty-four students from across the U.S. have been chosen to train for the mentally grueling exams and lab tests they'll face at the International Physics Olympiad, held this year July 20-29 in Hanoi in Vietnam.

"These young people, who mix great talent with extraordinary élan for physics, show the world an aspect of America we can all be proud of,” said Dr. Charles Holbrow, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers in College Park, MD, which selects the students and organizes their training.

To prepare, the students will spend ten days at a physics training camp at the University of Maryland, College Park, conducting lab experiments, taking exams, and hearing presentations from prominent scientists. At the end of the training camp, five students will be selected to travel to the international competition.

They'll be coached by several physicists: head coach Robert H. Shurtz, a physics teacher at Hawken School, Gates Mills, OH and Paul Stanley, a physics and astronomy associate professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

On May 22, the students will travel to Washington, DC, for a tour of the area and to meet their Senators and Representatives. The students will present a physics-related toy to their member of Congress. Pictures of the students and their members of Congress will be available after the event.

Last year, the team brought home two gold and three silver medals.

The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The Olympiad is a nine-day international competition among pre-university students from more than 60 nations. This year's event is co-organized by the Vietnamese Physical Society and the Ministry of Education and Training.

LIST OF EVENTS:
May 17-27 -- Students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp.
May 22 -- Visit Capitol Hill to meet their members of Congress.
May 27 -- Five students chosen to represent the US at the international competition.
July 20 -- Students arrive in Hanoi for the international competition.
July 30 -- The International Competition's final awards given.

MORE ON THE WEB
Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/
Bios of each student are available online at: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/team.cfm
History of the physics team, including past winners, is available at: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
The official website of the International Physics Olympiad, hosted by the Vietnamese team: http://www.ipho2008.org/

2008 PHYSICS TEAM

2008-04-28T17:18:00.001-04:00

Welcome to training camp! The preparation and the exams have been demanding; congratulations on coming through with flying colors. Our thanks to your families and schools and to the teachers who helped you.

You’ll have plenty to think about during the next few weeks. However, if you have a minute, here’s a question that you won’t find on any exam. It’s about elevators. Last week there was an interesting article about them in the New Yorker magazine: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all Author Nick Paumgarten was surprised to learn that the maximum possible height to which elevators can go is limited by the weight of rope.

"The big ideas tend to falter on the laws of physics," he says. "A single elevator can climb no higher than seventeen hundred feet. A hoist rope any longer is too heavy to be practical; at thirty-two hundred feet, it will snap, like a stream of spit in a stairwell." According to him, that’s the case even if the rope is made of the latest high-tech materials.

Is he right? What if you taper the rope? What if you use carbon fibers? Got any other ideas for improvements?

Harold Stone of Harvard and I are thinking of writing a short piece for the "Quick Study" section of Physics Today that shows interesting uses of dimensional analysis. Can we use dimensional analysis to estimate how long a rope will be before it breaks of its own weight?

We look forward to sharing ideas about physics, about the training experience, about life - maybe even about elevators.

See you soon,
Charlie Holbrow
Executive Officer, AAPT