Top results for Shrewsbury School students in National Physics Competitions

Shrewsbury School students once again achieved outstanding results in two of the British Physics Olympiad challenges.

Shrewsbury School students once again achieved outstanding results in two of the British Physics Olympiad challenges.

Most recently, students in the Fifth Form took part in the Intermediate Physics challenge online which consisted of 40 multiple-choice questions on various areas of Physics that are covered in our syllabus but also encourage wider reading.

Around 19% of students nationally who took part in the Intermediate Physics challenge were awarded with Gold and yet 38% of our students achieved this level!

Furthermore, our entire cohort of Lower Sixth Physics students took part in the British Physics Olympiad Senior Physics Challenge online and did extremely well. Nationally, 18% of students were awarded with Gold. Impressively, 27% of Shrewsbury School students achieved this top award! The top performer in the school was Godwin Y (SH, UVI) closely followed by Mico X (EDH) in the Fifth Form! They have both been working hard on their Physics both inside and outside the classroom.

Mico X (EDH) shared her views on Physics and the challenges so far:

What did you enjoy most about the challenge?

The challenge is interesting because it not only focuses on the problem solving skills but also the history and recent events in the field. For example, both challenges had a question on 2021 Nobel Physics Prize which was unprecedentedly laureated to the research on climate change. 

What do you enjoy most about Physics?

Learning physics makes me appreciate not only the nature itself, but the order and harmony lying beneath it. Also, physics builds a powerful model of the real world, allowing humans to predict from cosmic to sub-atomic level with merely calculations. It is this mind-blowing and fascinating power of physics which l love and enjoy the most. 

What was your favourite problem to solve in Physics (either in the challenges or just in general if you have one!)

In general, my favourite part in physics is following my curiosity and creating questions for myself. The most frequent question I had is "how to derive this formula from the start/another formula". Although this process is purely algebraic manipulation, the final result has an actual meaning in the real world and they are not just random letters which follow mathematical rules.

During the summer vacation 2020, one of my closest friends and I had nothing else to do so we spent loads of time discussing and trying to figure out how those seemingly complicated formulae are derived (e. g. Diffraction grating formula, Doppler effect formula and so on). Sometimes we got stuck, but most of the time we were inspired by each other and finally worked our way through it. That was so far the best and most memorable summer holiday I've ever had, all because of physics. 

We look forward to seeing how our Fourth Form students enjoy their challenge in the coming term.