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UKYPT

The United Kingdom Young Physicists Tournament

 

IYPT

The International Young Physicists Tournament

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Latest News!

Philipp Legner, Gessica Howarth, Charlie Jones, David Kell and Ben Powell Davies, who are students at Shrewsbury School, will represent the UK at the 22nd IYPT in China in July 2009

What is IYPT?

The International Young Physicists' Tournament developed from what was initially a competition organised by Moscow State University for secondary school students from Moscow itself. The latter then attracted international teams but it always took place in Moscow. These days, the competition attracts teams from around thirty countries and takes place in a different country each year.

The competition involves teams of five secondary school students preparing solutions to seventeen problems set the previous year by the international organising committee. During the competition, ‘Physics Fights’ take place. These involve a reporter presenting his or her solution to one of the 17 problems as chosen by his opposer. The reporter then has to defend his solution against what can be a very determined and formidable opponent. A reviewer then summarises the efforts of both reporter and opposer before all three are given marks by a panel of distinguished judges from the international physics teaching community. The standard of solutions from the international teams is very high, and in some cases exceptionally high, involving differential calculus, computer modelling, and outstanding experimental work. A full description of the competition rules and regulations can be obtained here.

The history of UK involvement in IYPT

Although the UK has been involved in the the rather larger International Physics Olympiad for many years, hosting it in 2000, it had not participated in the IYPT until 2003. Sue Fryer from the Institute of Physics was the driving force behind getting the UK involved and organised a search for a team. UK competitions were arranged, and a team from Shrewsbury School was selected to carry the flag. The competition that year was in Uppsala, Sweden, and we came a very respectable joint third - not bad for a first attempt. The 2004 competition took place in Brisbane, Australia, but due to the early date of the competition, it clashed with public exams and it was not possible to send a team. The UK team again shared a third place in Winterthur, Switzerland in 2005, but just missed out in Bratislava in 2006. Similar results were achieved in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2006, and Seoul, Korea in 2007.

 

 

Mr John Balcombe

IOC Member for United Kingdom