The 2005 Western Kentucky Physics Olympics – Saturday, April 30th

The 2005 Western Kentucky Physics Olympics was held at WKU on Saturday morning, April 30th, in the Thompson Center, Central Wing on WKU’s Bowling Green campus. The competition consisted of five events designed to test the physics knowledge, skill with experimental investigations, teamwork, and communication of high school students from around the region.  Each team was composed of four students and a coach.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's 'miraculous year' of 1905, The Einstein Centenary was the theme for this year’s Western Kentucky Physics Olympics, a half-day competition consisting of a pentathlon of challenging problem-solving activities that reward teamwork, creativity, and communication.

Each of the five events for 2005 Western Kentucky Physics Olympics was related to the discoveries which Albert Einstein published in 1905:

1. Photoelectric Effect - where teams competed to build "Rube Goldberg" devices that went through multiple steps to burst a balloon;

2. Heavy Water Plunge - where teams designed, constructed and demonstrated a device that would protect a water-filled balloon after repeated drops from a height of 35 feet;

3. Order of Magnitude Quiz;

4. Extremely Non-Relativistic Balloon Race - where teams divided into two groups - one to calculate how much weight a helium-filled balloon could lift and the other to create a load that would slow the balloon's ascent as much as possible; and

5. Brownian Motion - with teams going head to head against each other to shoot rubber bands at a balloon and drive it across the other teams goal line.

Outcome

Overall winners:
The day's competition was very balanced, with each team winning at least one of the individual competitions. The overall winning team for the competition came from Warren Central High School and was coached by their teacher, Ken Lee.  Each of the four students from the overall first place team recieved a $500 dollar scholarship to attend WKU:

• Rachel Kelly (Woodburn),

• Kevin Marvin (Rockfield),

• Armin Smailhodzic (Bowling Green), and

• Dewayne Sowell (Bowling Green).

1905 – Einstein’s Miraculous Year

Einstein wrote three fundamental papers, all in a few months. His first paper, on the Photoelectric Effect, claimed that light must sometimes behave like a stream of particles with discrete energies, "quanta", as well as a wave. The second paper, on Brownian Motion, offered an experimental test for the theory of heat. The third paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," introduced the Special Theory of Relativity.

 

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 Last modified on February 12, 2010.

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