This is the first stage in selecting the New Zealand physics team, which will consist of New Zealand’s top five students who will head to Romania for this year’s tournament.
The day involved three “physics fights”, where the team challenged other schools from Auckland to debate one of seven problems.
Problems included trying to explain why pepper comes out of a pot quicker when the bottom is rubbed.
After a 10 hour day, King’s 1 (Nathaniel Masfen-Yan (Year 13, Greenbank), Hanbo Xie (Year 13, Peart) and Anoop Saini (Year 13, Parnell)) emerged in 6th place, which guaranteed them a spot in the New Zealand final.
This is an outstanding result, including a rare 10 out of 10 score for Nathaniel’s efficient dismantling of another team’s solution.
The Year 12 King’s 2 team (Ashley Yang (Year 12, Marion Bruce), Daniel Jang (Year 12, Parnell) and Alvin Zhu (Year 12, Averill)) finished in 7th place, just missing out on a qualification spot.
A big thank you is due to the rest of the advanced physics class for all their experimental data (especially Felix Duan (Year 12, Marsden) and Rebekah Massey (Year 12, Marion Bruce) and Mr Haines and Mr Sapsworth for their guidance.
Omar Gardner
Teacher of Physics
