USIYPT

USIYPT stands for US Invitational Young Physicists Tournament. It’s a research-based competition: the organizer gives 4 problems, each team solves at least 3 of them, and presents in-person on a competition day every year.

The USIYPT team placed 5th nationally last year, and took a head start this year early this summer. This year’s team is significantly larger with around 18 students involved, and more prepared with last year’s experience. Here are the questions they are working on:

Magnetic Collisions

    Magnetic dynamics carts are often used to show both elastic, and inelastic, collisions. While in the inelastic case the abutting magnets collide and stick together, in the elastic case they repel magnetically without touching.

    Modify your school’s dynamics carts to collide inelastically without touching each other in the process. Clearly show that momentum is continuously conserved, and explain how the excess kinetic energy is dissipated.

This is, as I think, a mechanics question set in an E&M framework. This group plans to measure position and current generated by magnetic induction.

The Surface of the Moon

    Mountain heights and crater depths on the moon’s near side have been calculated since the 17th century. Now, anyone with a cell phone camera and a small telescope can photograph the moon to resolutions on the scale of kilometers.

    Image the moon using standard equipment, and make a three dimensional map of its surface.

This is a modeling question with less emphasis on equipment and more emphasis on processing on photos. While traditional methods of calculating mountain heights are going to be used, this group will also use computer modeling for more precision.

Bouncing Drops of Water

    When water drops bounce on a flat surface, symmetry suggests that they do not spin, but rather bounce and splash. However, when bouncing on a surface with an asymmetrical pattern, they can both bounce and spin.

    Investigate the bouncing of water droplets both experimentally and physically.

Arguably one of the hardest questions this year, this question draws on fluid mechanics. Experiments with a high speed camera will be used to build a computer model using ANSYS.

Long Jumps with Weights

    In Ancient Greece, athletes employed hand-held weights or halteres to extend the range of the standing long jump. In a brief 2002 article in Nature, Minetti & Ardigó found that archaeological halteres were in the mass range that optimized one potential benefit of the weights. The halteres may also have been hurled while the athlete was in flight.

    Consider all the effects of hand-held weights in the standing long jump, where the goal is to optimize horizontal distance traveled in one leap before striking the ground, from both a theoretical and experimental basis.

Last but not least, the long jump problem is one of the more experimental questions this year. Although difficulties with standardizing can be expected since it involves human experimentation, experiments with video tracing may prove to provide a reasonably controlled data set.

If you find yourself interested in any of these questions, many of the groups would be happy to have additional help. Please contact the author, or our sponsor Alison Leonard.