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A phenomenon from everyday life appears. Your task: create a model describing what is happening.
The phenomenon is presented without hints. You will not be told if it involves mechanics, electromagnetism, optics, or thermodynamics. There is no answer key.
You are not expected to have seen this particular phenomenon before. But you are expected to bring your curiosity and use the physics knowledge you already have.
For one hour, you will tackle fundamental questions: What governs this phenomenon? What can be ignored? What sets the scale? The challenge lies in identifying what matters, eliminating what does not, and thoroughly describing the phenomenon before you. This is precisely the work of curious, skilled scientists: analyzing phenomena from the world around us and explaining them comprehensively.
You will see phenomena drawn from the world around us. The actual competition phenomenon is never published in advance.
| Field | What is shown |
|---|---|
| Waves | Two sets of ripples on a water surface creating a changing diamond-shaped pattern where they overlap. |
| Fluids | A steady stream from a faucet suddenly breaking into evenly spaced droplets. |
| Optics | A vertical soap film showing rainbow bands that drift and widen. |
| Mechanics | A chain pulled from a container rising in an arc before falling. |
| Electromagnetism | A magnet dropped down a copper pipe drifting slowly to the bottom instead of falling freely. |
| Thermodynamics | Frost spreading on a cold window following scratch patterns in the glass. |
| Acoustics | A wine glass pitch that drops as it fills with water. |
SoTS Competition doors open
Arrive, check in, and take a seat before the room is sealed.
The competition hour
The phenomenon is shown. You write your description by hand, on paper we provide.
SCIENCE OR ELSE doors open
The annual SoTS conference opens in the same building, on a separate ticket.
SCIENCE OR ELSE, our annual conference, opens its doors at 9:30 AM in the same building. Note: the competition and conference are separate registrations. Competing does not admit you to the conference, and a conference ticket does not enter you in the competition.
Because physics often requires referencing information, you may bring reference material: standard textbooks and tables of constants and formulas. You may also bring a calculator: scientific, engineering or graphing (standard models like Texas Instruments are fine).
Papers are judged by professional physicists, who assess how well you described the phenomenon.
You describe using words, formulas, diagrams, and drawings, the same way a physicist would in a first-draft description of a phenomenon.
Middle school papers (grades 7-8) are judged as a separate group from high school papers (grades 9-12). The grouping sets who your paper is compared with, not what you are expected to know: the phenomenon is never chosen to match what a given grade is supposed to have covered.
Results are announced one week after the competition.
Learn physics for real: understand it instead of memorizing it, the way we teach in the SoTS Physics Lyceum. Pay attention to the world around you, and practice identifying and describing phenomena through physics. It is up to you to prepare and be versatile across topics. We do not use any school program or curriculum to select the phenomenon.
The first SoTS Physics Competition takes place on Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 300 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, New Jersey. Doors open at 7:30 AM. The number of spots in each age group is limited, so register early to secure a spot.
Registration fee
$150
per student, covering participation, judging, and written feedback
One phenomenon from the world around us. One hour. The curiosity and skills you bring.