The MH Physics Club participated in multiple team-based and singular hands-on events this year, testing their active participation, problem-solving abilities and their creative and organizational skills.

These six events change every year. According to Wonyul Choi, you can think of it like a set of ten questions you are estimating using math, but not really. “You can think of a set of ten questions for events where you’re estimating how many rubber ducks fit into the Earth’s oceans, and then devising a strategy to figure that out.”

In the paper boomerang, 11th grader Wonyul Choi created a Paper Boomerang with specific dimensions made out of manila folders and tape. He had to throw the boomerang three meters and make it travel back to him, and the objective was being able to catch the boomerang without moving from the designated spot.

Arjun Pandey, who is also a junior, participated in the Penny Cantilever. In this event, you set up a stack of pennies, and stack 100 pennies to get as far off of a table as possible. First, he decided to use a computer model to waste less time in the experimental process. But later on, he understood that the best way to go about it was through trial and error and optimize strategy from there.

Coffee Can incorporated a coffee can you could modify only in the inside to roll down a 1 meter ramp as slowly as possible, and the objective was to make sure it wouldn’t stop for more than two seconds. Their shortest time was 1.7 seconds, and Arghya Rath believes that their designs were at both ends of the spectrum. One of them rolled down really fast, while the other went down for about two minutes. The team placed in second and third.

“That was the most physics-y and engineering one,” says Rath.

“We were literally working on it until the day of the competition,” says Choi.

“Essentially, the idea of the Coffee Can racer was that you needed to fiddle with something called the object’s momentum of inertia, which essentially is just how hard something is to rotate or stop rotating.” explains Pandey.

In Paper Barge, the objective was to build a boat out of paper manila folders, put as many pennies in it as possible, and make sure it could float for thirty seconds or more before sinking. As this was a fairly easier challenge, many contestants wanted to get involved.

Rath specialized in Penny Catapult, in which the task was to construct a catapult out of manila folders (with the exception of rubber bands), to launch a penny to a target that would be at two meters and one at three meters. Points were administered based on accuracy.

In terms of leadership structure, there were four seniors and twelve-ish juniors. In each of the events, two juniors were the designated leaders who would organize the event, have everyone participate and help get everyone started to make sure what they were building was working. They would evaluate and judge others, and then the seniors who were a part of the Executive Board would oversee all the comments and choose teams for the events. Each team had four alternates.

Choi believes that one of the team’s advantages was that having repeatedly built models of the boat in Paper Barge during club sessions, efficiency was maximized which contributed to them placing first in that event. Many teams had good ideas, but could not finish building their boat.

Pandey believes that creativity is key, and found that “a lot of outlandish ideas that seemed very unrealistic actually worked. The winning creations that we had, from the penny barge to cantilever, many ideas we figured weren’t going to work ending up being our best works.”