newsletter-wednesday..

44th
WEDNESDAY JULY 10 // ISSUE #3
Copenhagen Denmark 7-15 July 2013
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
[email protected]
(Check the next issue of Hafnium for the right answer.)
Eremitagen
4 • Hafnium • Issue #3
Miriam Ortwed
Layout, Graphics & Photo
[email protected]
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