The event will be held on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 9 a.m.
Washington Township High School will play host to the New Jersey Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers’ 2018 Physics Olympics on Saturday, Jan. 13, beginning at 9 a.m. in Cafeteria C/D in the school’s nine–10 wing. A second competition is being hosted on the same day at Monmouth Regional High School for North and Central Jersey participants. Schools from throughout the state were invited to submit teams of up to six students to compete in a series of physics-related challenges. These include:
- Fermi question: to estimate the order of magnitude of a quantity that is difficult or impossible to measure.
- Greatest Acceleration Vehicle: construct a four-wheeled vehicle, propelled using only the energy supplied by a mouse trap(s), which will transport the greatest load with the greatest average acceleration
- Collapsing Tower: cause a domino from a tower of dominos to land in a collapse zone as far away from the base of the tower as possible
- Penny Cantilever: build a penny cantilever that extends as far as possible off of a table without any attached supports
- Grab Bag: teams will be given supplies to build a device that solves a challenge
- Coffee Can Racer: design and build a coffee can racer that will roll down a ramp in the greatest amount of time.
Prizes will be awarded to each of the top three highest overall placing teams, as well as to the top team in each of the six event categories. A maximum of 100 points will be awarded in each of the six events. NJAAPT representative Nancy Michaelson will be running the event at WTHS.
