Results

The winner of the 2014 Tournament was The Harker School. The second place winner was Shenzhen Middle School. The tournament was hosted at The Harker School. The Swartz Trophy went to Guilderland High School.

Problems

Foucault Pendulum: Design, build, and operate a Foucault-type pendulum and use measurements of the pendulum’s precession rate to measure your school’s geographic latitude. Account for and assess the systematic and random uncertainties in your measurements. Compare and contrast your results with published values for your location.

Ball Stack: Predict and measure the maximum height of a freely-standing, roughly stable stack of spherical balls built on a horizontal table. Examine the relevant para- meters and at least three combinations of types of balls and tables.

Wake Angle: The angle between the edges of a wake behind an object traveling on the surface of water is surprisingly independent of the object, i.e., the angle is the same for a duck or an aircraft carrier. Why is this? Develop a theory that demonstrates the independence as well as identifies its limitations, and compare your predictions to multiple water- surface travellers.

Magnet Stack: A common demonstration device consists of ring-shaped magnets repelling each other while concentrically stacked on a slender pole. Develop a theory that predicts the spacing between magnet stacks for three, four, five, ... magnets and compare to experiment.

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