Thursday 14 July 2016 A team of young physicists from The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) displayed a strong grasp of their subject when they won the Fermi quiz at a recent Physics Olympics event. Sponsored by the Ogden Trust and now in its tenth year, the Physics Olympics is a competition for Year 8 pupils hosted at St Peter’s School, York. 140 pupils from 35 schools across northern England attended the competition where they competed in six different events including constructing the highest tower to hold the greatest load and building the fastest solar powered boat. GSAL’s team of Nazeer Ahmad, Amy Proctor, Mei Whattam and Jake Howarth came into their own in the Fermi quiz, sharing first place with King James’ School, Knaresborough. The Fermi quiz ran throughout the day, so pupils could use any spare moments they had to tackle the questions. The quiz challenged pupils to estimate quantities that could not be measured directly, such as the number of £20 notes you would need to stack in order to fill the assembly hall. Calculators were permitted and the aim was to get the lowest score possible – the closer they were to the correct value (by orders of magnitude), the fewer points they scored. The Physics Olympics is a fun way to inspire promising young physicists, who come away after an enjoyable day having learned new physics concepts and techniques, as well as developing their team skills. General Senior School
