Tidewater Physics Olympics Coming to Salem High March 16

March 01, 2013

What do the Slow Bicycle Race, the Laser Target Shoot, Build-a-Magnet and the Gum-Drop-And-Spaghetti Tower Building Competition have in common?

These are some of the typical events at the Tidewater Physics Olympics, a light-hearted competition for teams of middle and high school students from Hampton Roads. Top scoring teams will win prizes, including tickets to Busch Gardens and Water Country USA.

The 25th annual Tidewater Physics Olympics will be held Saturday, March 16, at Salem High School in Virginia Beach. It is organized by the Tidewater Teachers of Physics Society (TOPS) and sponsored by TOPS, Salem High School and Busch Gardens. The competition will run from 9 a.m. to noon, and spectators are welcome.

Middle and high School teams will be ranked separately. Multiple teams from a school may compete.

Each year, approximately 250 students compete in six events, including building the highest possible tower from 30 pieces of spaghetti and 20 gumdrops, completing a 20-foot course on a bicycle as slowly as possible, and estimating how fast human hair grows and how many one-gallon buckets it would take to empty Lake Trashmore. For more information, contact David Wright at 822-7307 or tcwrigd@tcc.edu or Larry Weinstein at 683-5803 or weinstein@odu.edu. Weinstein is an Eminent Scholar and University Professor of physics at Old Dominion University.