Pirates of the Bluegrass is 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.
The WKU Department of Physics and Astronomy
invites each high school to send one or more teams of
four to compete in the 2007 Western Kentucky Physics Olympics. This
year’s event will be held Saturday, February 24 from
8:30 a.m. until about 2:00 p.m. in the
Thompson Center, Central Wing on WKU’s Bowling Green campus.
The competition will commence with two activities that involve competitors arriving at the event ready
to compete with devices they have designed, constructed, and tested.
The competition entitled Sail Ho! – Spyglass to the Horizon requires each team to design,
construct, and use a telescope to resolve a distant image.
For Bungee From the Crows Nest each team will acquire and test an elastic cord to be able to drop a particular
mass from a given height so that it drops as close as possible to the deck of the ship without actually impacting.
This year’s Calculation / Communication Challenge will be a test of pulleys and levers to lift a treasure chest out
of its hole, requiring two members of the team to make a series of measurements and the other two members
to follow the devised plan and actually lift the chest. The final two events - the "On-the-Spot Activity",
a mostly hands-on, impromptu challenge, and the "Order-of-Magnitude Quiz", a brain teaser which asks contestants
to quickly estimate answers for extreme situations - will remain cloaked in secrecy until those events actually begin.
Details about each event for the 2007 Western Kentucky Physics Olympics can be found
on the Event Descriptions page.
Each of the four contestants on the team with the best score in the overall competition will receive a $500 scholarship
to attend Western Kentucky University.
The scholarship is to be used during the freshman year and is awarded above and beyond any other scholarships the student might otherwise earn.
Medals for the team members and a plaque for the school will be awarded to the top 3 teams in the overall competition.
Certificates will be awarded to the top three teams in each event.
