The IYPT and the ‘Ring Oiler’ problem

Martin Plesch,Natália Ružičková,Samuel Plesník

doi:10.1088/1361-6404/ab6414

Abstract

The International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) continued in 2018 in Beijing, China and 2019 in Warsaw, Poland with its 31st and 32nd editions. The IYPT is a modern scientific competition for teams of high school students, also known as the Physics World Cup. It involves long-term theoretical and experimental work focused on solving 17 publicly announced open-ended problems in teams of five. On top of that, teams have to present their solutions in front of other teams and a scientific jury, and get opposed and reviewed by their peers. Here we present a brief information about the competition with a specific focus on one of the IYPT 2018 tasks, the ‘Ring Oiler’. This seemingly simple mechanical problem appeared to be of such a complexity that even the dozens of participating teams and jurying scientists were not able to solve all of its subtleties.

Highlights

Modern educational methods give more and more emphasis on an independent inquiry work of the students
17 open-ended physics problems are published by the International Organising Committee and all students worldwide are welcome to start their work on finding suitable solutions
Motivated students are asked to try to measure current using its heat effect, blow on a candle hidden behind a bottle or measure time using a Saxon Bowl

Summary

Introduction

Modern educational methods give more and more emphasis on an independent inquiry work of the students. Students were asked to experimentally recover the old patent of Nikola Tesla: a one-way valve for fluids This passive element was originally intended to be useful in steam engines and power plants, but it turned out that the effect was smaller than expected. The basic principle of the raising pair of balls led to interesting discussions on forces, momenta and inertia, which were challenging for the students as well as for jurors Another problem inspired by real world applications was Loud voices, related to a passive megaphone. It turned out that while a thin layer of soy sauce, if shined on with a strong laser, has very interesting optical properties, it can hardly by characterised as a simple lens This lead again to heated discussions between reporting and opposing teams on the key aspects of the problem, as well as whether wave optics approach should have been used

The Ring Oiler Problem

Basic movement and horizontal inclination of the ring

Vertical inclination

Saturation

Full movement

Conclusion