The tournament was hosted virtually by USAYPT due to the ongoing pandemic. The USIYPT 2021 champion is Phillips Exeter Academy, with second place going to Woodberry Forest School. The Swartz Trophy goes to The Nueva School. The Bibilashvili award went to all eleven participating schools.

• Dates

  Saturday, January 30 - Sunday, January 31

• Host Institution

  USAYPT (Virtual)

Chatter Ring

The Chatter ring, also Gyro ring or Jitter ring, is a toy with small spinning rings, called beads, around a big hoop, called the ring. The goal is to keep all of the beads spinning for as long, and as fast, as possible.
Investigate how one works, both experimentally and theoretically.

Lava Lamp

Edward Craven Walker and David George Smith invented the Lava Lamp in 1963, and it soon became a fad, remaining popular throughout the 1970s.
Investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, the physics of lava lamps.

Modeling Impact Craters

What happens when a large rock hits a planet or moon? Does it matter if it hits the water or land? How much kinetic energy does it take to produce a crater of a particular diameter? Where does this energy go during the impact? What forms the central peaks found in some lunar craters such as Tycho shown.
Conduct experiments designed to reproduce the shape of various terrestrial and lunar craters. Use your experimental results, and appropriate scaling relations, to estimate the energy needed to produce observed impact craters. How do your results compare with estimates from the scientific literature?

Joseph Henry’s Rocking Motor

In 1831 Joseph Henry invented the first electromagnetic motor, or as he put it: “I have lately succeeded in producing motion in a little machine by a power, which, I believe, has never before been applied in mechanics—by magnetic attraction and repulsion.”

Champion: Phillips Exeter Academy
2nd Place: Woodberry Forest School
Swartz Trophy Winner: The Nueva School