44th Copenhagen Denmark 7-15 July 2013 WEDNESDAY JULY 10 // ISSUE #3 YESTERDAY See how hard you worked during the theoretical examination. STUDENT MAP Meet the students from 11 fabulous countries. H.C. ØRSTED PHYSICIST OF THE DAY The man who noticed cool stuff involving a compass and a wire. Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851) was a close friend of Hans Christian Andersen the famous Danish fairy tale writer.
Tour at Center for Quantum Devises. THEORETICAL EXAMINATION - and famous physics buildings Auditorium A where Niels Bohr held his lectures. Tomas Bohr held the first talk about his grandfather Niels Bohr and the birth of quantum mechanics. Yesterday the second day of IPhO 2013 was the theoretical examination day. There was a high level of concentration in the examination hall during the five hours of problem solving. When the hardships were over it was time for a little history. The students walked through Copenhagen and visited Niels Bohr s office and the famous Auditorium A at the Niels Bohr Institute. The day ended at the H. C. Ørsted Institute with exciting physics talks. See some of the pictures here. 2 Hafnium Issue #3 Problem solving in the Gefion Hall. Hafnium IPhO 2013 3
STUDENT MAP ITZERLAND W S UTH KOREA O S NEPAL A new batch of clever students from around the globe. MEXICO SPAIN NG KONG HO LANKA SRI BRAZIL SYRIA XKCD FOURIER Can you arrange 9 numerals - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (using each numeral just once) above and below a division line, to create a fraction equaling to 1/3 (one third)? TRALIA AUS ONESIA IND HAFNIUM Editorial team Turi Schäffer Editor & Journalist tkschaffer@gmail.com (Check the next issue of Hafnium for the right answer.) Eremitagen 4 Hafnium Issue #3 Miriam Ortwed Layout, Graphics & Photo miriam.ortwed@gmail.com Hafnium IPhO 2013 5
XKCD Ørsted s experiment. The direction of the current in the wire is shown with an arrow. The deflection of the compass needle is also shown. The Ørsted Rule is fortunately fulfilled. - and Electromagnetism Ø rsted was a physicist, a chemist and a pharmacist. He learned his first applied chemistry in his father s pharmacy when he was 12 years old and he obtained the highest mark possible when Ørsted and his brother went to Copenhagen to finish their high school degree. Ørsted was very interested in the philosophy of nature and he sought to find a connection between forces of nature, philosophy and art. Pursuing this interest gave him a bad reputation in the science department at University of Copenhagen, so it was difficult for him to get a permanent position. In 1820 he found a correlation between magnetism and electricity when he noticed that a compass needle was affected by a current-carrying wire. Electromagnetism quickly became the new and important area of research of the time and Ørsted was acknowledged throughout the world. He did not dwell in the research of electromagnetism, but instead he studied the compressibility of gases and liquids and he isolated (unpurified) aluminum for the first time in 1825. In 1829 he established Technical University of Denmark (DTU) inspired by École Polytechnique in Paris and he was the president of the institution until his death in 1851. He taught physics through all the years. In addition to his presidency at DTU, he became the Vice Chancellor of University of Copenhagen in 1850 the same year as the Faculty of Science was established. Sadly, he died only one year later. Ørsted was very interested in teaching and wrote several textbooks. He also attempted to bring the Danish language into the universities. The formal language was Latin, but Ørsted thought that both research and teaching would improve if everyone used his mother tongue. He was the originator of 2000 Danish words in his areas of interest. Quite a few of them are still used today. Words such as billedkunst (visual arts), sommerfugl (butterfly), ilt (oxygen), brint (hydrogen) and varmefylde (specific heat capacity) are all words that are still used in the daily life in 2013. ØRSTED MEANS A LOT OF THINGS The Ørsted Rule is a mnemonic with which you can predict the deflection of a compass needle if you know the direction of the current. If you point your fingers in the direction of the current, then the north pole of the compass needle will deflect in the direction of your thumb. The magnet should be underneath the wire and your hand above the wire. 6 Hafnium Issue #3 THE DIFFERENCE HANS CHRISTIAN ØRSTED You are given two ropes and a lighter. This is the only equipment you can use. You are told that each of the two ropes has the following property: if you light one end of the rope, it will take exactly one hour to burn all the way to the other end. But it doesn't have to burn at a uniform rate. In other words, half the rope may burn in the first five minutes, and then the other half would take 55 minutes. The rate at which the two ropes burn is not necessarily the same, so the second rope will also take an hour to burn from one end to the other, but may do it at some varying rate, which is not necessarily the same as the one for the first rope. Now you are asked to measure a period of 45 minutes. How will you do it? (Check the next issue of Hafnium for the right answer.) TOMORROW... EXPERIMENTAL EXAMINATION, DTU TOUR AND PARTY, PARTY, PARTY! The unit (in the cgs-system) for magnetic field strength is called an Oersted. The H. C. Ørsted Institute or just HCØ as it is called informally is the science building at University of Copenhagen, where you heard a talk yesterday by Tomas Bohr and Charles M. Marcus in the large auditorium. Hafnium IPhO 2013 7
How was the theoretical examination? Was it harder than you thought it would be? VIETNAM It was very hard and long. There was a lot to No, we were not so surprised by the level. We calculate and it took a long time to check all the did our best and we think we did pretty well. answers. The most interesting and also most difficult problem was number two. DU Y ANH & TU SALVADOR EL It was very hard, but I really enjoyed the prob- No, it was exactly as I expected. I knew it would lems, because they were about the topics in be difficult. The level of the Olympiad is high, so physics that I like the best. It was a difficult exam I studied a lot. and I would have liked to have an hour more to be able to complete it. But it was a good experi- ALE JANDRA IRAN ence and I have learned a lot. It was very good. There were many parts to No, it was just as I expected for a good IPhO solve and they were difficult, but the questions examination. I think Denmark has made a perfect were beautiful. There was a high level of physics IPhO exam. It was difficult, but very interesting. in them. In the problems from the past years that I have solved there was a lot of hard mathemat- NADER SYRIA ics, but the questions today were about physics. It was very difficult because there was not Yes, because I expected it to be easy. Last year enough time. The first question was the easiest it was difficult, so I thought it would be easier this one. The second question was the most interest- year. It was not it was much more difficult. But I ing one, but also the most difficult. think that I did alright. OSAMA FOR THE PARTY TOMORROW, REMEMBER TO......dress up and get your groove on. In case you lack inspiration for the dance floor, we here provide you with a few dance moves IPhO style. 8 Hafnium Issue #3