In the beginning of November 2017, a preparation camp for the second round was held in Vordemwald. 35 students participated in the camp. In addition to the lectures and the exercises, we visited the nuclear power plant in Gösgen. In the evenings, we had various entertaining activities planned.
We would like to thank all participants and teachers for taking part in the competition. The multiple-choice test was taken by 647 students (558 from Switzerland and 89 from Liechtenstein). The number of participants is almost ten times higher than the average of the previous years.
15 points were necessary to qualify for the preparation camp and the second round. 59 participants achieved the necessary 15 points. Additionally, 18 wild cards were handed out. We would like to invite the following people to the preparation camp and to the second round:
Noah Ackermann | Robert Adarraga | Eric Aschari | Namu Bae |
Stefan Baumann | Fabian Beck | Michelle Bollier | Benno Bösch |
Ramón Buchenberger | Matthias Bürgler | Lucas Dodgson | Gabriele Donati |
Luka Dragomirovic | Edouard Dufour | Florian Eisenring | Jonathan Esche |
Hiro Josep Farré Kaga | Raphaël Fragnière | Nicolaz Frei | Leonie Gasser |
Keanu Gleixner | Michael Ha | Tobias Hächler | Philipp Hänsel |
Nathan Hoffman | Fabio Holdener | Lennart Horn | Dominik Hügli |
Ciril Humbel | Scott Irvine | Arthur Jaques | Moritz Käch |
Ruben Kaufmann | Michael Kitto | Dominik Kleinstück | Etienne Lacroux |
Marco Lazic | Simon Leber | Thoma Leisibach | Sebastiaan Leys |
Louis Linder | Giuseppe Maggisano | Justus Maleck | Jonas Meier |
Tim Mosimann | Bibin Muttappillil | Patrick Nutt | Laura Nydegger |
Yunshu Ouyang | Fabian Popp | Jonas Raich | Ruben Rauter |
Joel Reichardt | Samuel Renggli | Marco Rotschi | Aja Ruoss |
Joshua Ruoss | Alexander Schaller | Gabriela Schenk | Nicolas Schmid |
Michael Schmolzer | Andreas Schneider | Jonas Schweiger | Daniel Schwyzer |
Erwan Serandour | Maciej Smela | Severin Spörri | Eric Ströher |
Kieron Tella | Julius Vering | Joël Vögtlin | Mario Wildhaber |
Dana Zimmermann | Raphael Zumbrunn |
All participants listed here will receive an invitation with further information by email. If you don't receive an email by 10.10.2017, please contact Sebastian Stengele as soon as possible.
This year the 48th physics olympiad took place in Yogyakarta (Indonesia).
The competition was split into two five hour exams. The experimental part consisted of two experiments. In the first one the students used a laser to examine the index of refraction and the constant of diffusion of a salt solution. The second experiment was about a so-called PDL trap that can make graphite rods levitate. A PDL trap is constructed using two magnets arranged in a certain way. The participants had to measure different properties of the magnets and rods in order to figure out how to use this PDL trap as a seismograph and a tilt sensor.
In the theoretical part the students were given three challenging problems. The subjects included dark matter, the expansion of the Universe and - fitting for Indonesia - tsunamis and earthquakes.
Our participants achieved great results. Adrian Rutschmann und Henning Zhang won a bronze medal, and Pascal Isenring, Alexandre Pinazza and Tamar Som received honorable mentions!
We would like to congratulate the participants. Not only for their individual success but also for the team's result!