Source: https://www.ipho-new.org/statutes-syllabus/
Timestamp: 2019-09-17 08:36:27
Document Index: 290656434

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 7', '§ 10', '§ 8', '§ 9', '§6', '§5', '§3', '§7', '§7']

iPhO - Statutes of the International Physics Olympiads and Syllabus
The competition is organized by the Ministry of Education, the Physical Society or another appropriate institution of one of the participating countries on whose territory the competition is to be conducted. The organizing country is obliged to ensure equal participation of all the delegations, and to invite teams from all those countries that participated during the last three years. Additionally, it has the right to invite other countries. The list of such new countries must be presented to Secretariat of the IPhOs (§ 8) at least six months prior to the competition. Within two months the Secretariat has the right to remove, after consultations with the Advisory Committee (# 8), from the suggested list the teams that in opinion of Secretariat or Advisory Committee do not meet the criteria of participation in the IPhOs. The new countries not accepted by the Secretariat or Advisory Committee may, however, participate as “guest teams” but such participation does not create any commitments with respect to inviting these countries to the next competition(s).
Each participating country shall send a delegation, normally consisting of five students (contestants) and two accompanying persons (delegation leaders) at most. The contestants shall be students of general or technical secondary schools i.e. schools which cannot be considered technical colleges. Students who have finished their school examinations in the year of the competition can be members of the team as long as they have not commenced their university studies. The age of the contestants should not exceed twenty years on June 30th of the year of the competition.
The theoretical problems should involve at least four areas of physics taught at secondary school level, (see Syllabus). Secondary school students should be able to solve the competition problems with standard high school mathematics and without extensive numerical calculation. The competition tasks are chosen and prepared by the host country and have to be accepted by the International Board (§ 7).
The total number of marks awarded for the theoretical examination shall be 30 and for the experimental examination 20. The competition organizer shall determine how the marks are allocated within the examinations. After preliminary grading (prior to discussion of the grading with the delegation leaders) the organizers establish minima (expressed in points) for Gold Medals, Silver Medals, Bronze Medals, and Honorable Mentions according to the following rules:
An Olympic Medal or Honorable Mention should be awarded to 67% of the contestants (rounded up the nearest integer).
The minima corresponding to the above percentages should be expressed without rounding. The suggested minima shall be considered carried if one half or more of the number of the Members of the International Board cast their vote in the affirmative. Results of those candidates who only receive a certificate of participation should strictly remain to the knowledge of the Members of the International Board and persons allowed to attend its meetings.
The chairman of the International Board shall be a representative of the organizing country when tasks, solutions and evaluation guidelines are discussed and the President of the IPhO in all other topics. A proposal placed to the International Board, except Statutes, Regulations and Syllabus (see § 10), shall be considered carried if more than 50% of all delegation leaders present at the meeting vote in the affirmative. Each delegation leader is entitled to one vote. In the case of equal number of votes for and against, the chairman has the casting vote. The quorum for a meeting of the International Board shall be one half of those eligible to vote. The International Board has the following responsibilities:
to discuss the Organizers’ choice of tasks, their solutions and the suggested evaluation guidelines before each part of the competition. The Board is authorized to change or reject suggested tasks but not to propose new ones. Changes may not affect experimental equipment. There will be a final decision on the formulation of tasks and on the evaluation guidelines. The participants in the meeting of the International Board are bound to preserve secrecy concerning the tasks and to be of no assistance to any of the participants;
to select the countries which will be assigned the organization of future competitions;
The host of the past Olympiad,
The hosts of the next two Olympiads,
Such other persons appointed by the President.
Proposals for amendment to these Statutes and the supplementing documents may be submitted to the president or his nominee no later than December 15th prior to consideration. The President shall circulate, no later than March 15th, all such proposals together with the recommendation of the President’s Advisory Committee, to the last recorded address of each delegation leader who attended at the last IPhO.
The accompanying persons are considered by the organizers of the next Olympiad and by the Secretariat of the IPhOs (§ 8) as contact persons until the next Olympiad (unless new accompanying persons or other contact persons are nominated by the participating country). Each participating country must ensure that the contestants are all secondary school pupils when they announce the names of the members of their delegations. In addition to the delegations, teams may be accompanied by observers and guests. Observers may attend all Olympiad meetings, including the meetings of the International Board. However they may not vote or take part in the discussions. Guests do not attend the meetings of the International Board.
The host country is obliged to ensure that the Competition is conducted according to the Statutes. It should provide full information for participating countries, prior to their arrival, concerning venue, dates, accommodation, transport from airports, ports and railway stations. The addresses, telephone, fax, e-mail of all IPhO officers should be provided, together with information concerning relevant laws and customs of the host country. A program of events during the IPhO should be prepared for the leaders and contestants. It should be sent to the participating countries, prior to the Olympiad. The organizers of the IPhO are responsible for devising all the problems. They must be presented in English as indicated in § 9. The examination topics should require creative thinking and knowledge contained within the Syllabus. Factual knowledge from outside the Syllabus may be introduced provided it is explained using concepts within the Syllabus. Everyone participating in the preparation of the competition problems must not divulge their content.
The Secretariat is responsible to collect all these answers and has to make a list with all the names. If the current members of the Secretariat are willing to continue his/her term, he or she has to enter his/her name in this list and has to follow the same rules as all the other candidates.
In §6 of the Statutes it is stated that: ”The total number of marks awarded for the theoretical examination shall be 30 and for the experimental examination 20. The competition organiser shall determine how the marks are allocated within the examinations. ”
During the meeting of the International Board (IB) of the IPhO where the problems are discussed, a detailed marking scheme has to be provided which will be approved by the IB, if more than 50% of all delegation leaders present at the meeting vote in the affirmative.
The number of marks should reflect the required performance of the contestant. This performance can have different features:
All results per (sub)question need to be presented with it’s correct unit. Within a numerical or algebraic evaluation units are not demanded unless this is specifically asked for.
Drawings need to be completed with the necessary labels (i.e. numbers, letters, titles, …)
Tables need to indicate:
Graphs need to fulfil:
Unless specified otherwise in the question, the student needs to state how they derived their uncertainty (error) estimations, equally acceptable either by graphical or theoretical methods.
The leading principle to mark is to award the contestant in accordance to the extent in which the required performance is met. Therefore marks will be added for every correct intermediate or final result; this in contrast to a system in which marks are subtracted for every error.
Per (sub)question the maximum of marks allotted has to be in accordance with the marking scheme.
The allotted marks will reflect to what extent the contestant has fulfilled the task.
Partial marks (0 – maximum) will be given when the performance is incomplete. This includes evaluations where for instance the final result is incorrect.
In case an error propagates in subsequent results, full marks will be given per intermediate and final result when no extra errors are made, unless the error clearly simplifies the calculations or the algebraic manipulations. In the latter case the degree of simplification should be reflected in the marks allotted.
At any stage the contestant should – if possible – reflect on the physical meaning of a(n) (intermediate) result. In case of wrong results only partial marks, if any, will be given. The reflection will regard:
In the Regulation to §5 of the Statutes it is stated that: “The organisers shall provide the delegation leaders with copies of their students’ scripts and allow at least 12 hours for them to mark the scripts.” The time allotted for the preliminary marking should be long enough to achieve a high quality of grading. This benefits the moderations, assures more fair results and increases the predictability of the number of awards.
The markers in the moderation should have excellent knowledge on the problem they moderate. It is preferred that these markers are the same as the ones that marked the papers of the contestants who are discussed with the team leaders.
The markers master English to the extent that a quick discussion on their marking is assured. In case the markers need translations the time for the moderation will be doubled.
In §3 of the Statutes it is stated that: “The delegation leaders must be specialists in physics or physics teachers, capable of solving the problems of the competition competently. Each of them should be able to speak English.” When the moderation is slowed down due to the fact that the delegation leaders do not meet these requirements, there will be no extra time allotted for the moderation.
In the Regulations to §7 of the Statutes it is stated that: “During the meeting of the graders where the final and most detailed version of the grading scheme is set, 3 members of the International Board will be present. They have the right to give advice to the group of graders in order to keep the grading scheme within the tradition of the IPhOs.” Since these members are elected by the International Board, which is the governing body of the Olympiad (see §7 of the Statutes), their advise is decisive.
After the leaders and graders accept the moderation results, the marks of the concerned contestants should be final. If there is any special reason for changing the grades, it has to obtain consent from the three representatives of the International Board.
Purpose of this syllabus
Character of the problems
Newton’s second law (in vector form and via projections (components)); kinetic energy for translational and rota­tional motions. Potential energy for simple force fields (also as a line integral of the force field). Momentum, angular momentum, energy and their conservation laws. Mechanical work and power; dissipation due to friction. Inertial and non-inertial frames of reference: inertial force, centrifugal force, potential energy in a rotating frame. Moment of inertia for simple bodies (ring, disk, sphere, hollow sphere, rod), parallel axis theorem; finding a moment of inertia via integration.
Law of gravity, gravitational potential, Kepler’s laws (no derivation needed for first and third law). Energy of a point mass on an elliptical orbit.
Concepts of charge and current; charge conservation and Kirchhoff’s current law. Coulomb force; electrostatic field as a potential field; Kirchhoff’s voltage law. Mag­netic B-field; Lorentz force; Ampère’s force; Biot-Savart law and B-field on the axis of a circular current loop and for simple symmetric systems like straight wire, circular loop and long solenoid.
Integral forms of Maxwell’s equations
Gauss’law (for E-and B-fields); Ampère’s law; Faraday’s law; using these laws for the calculation of fields when the integrand is almost piece-wise constant. Boundary conditions for the electric field (or electrostatic potential) at the surface of conductors and at infinity; concept of grounded conductors. Superposition principle for electric and magnetic fields;uniqueness of solution to well-posed problems; method of image charges.
Interaction of matter with electric and magnetic fields
Resistivity and conductivity; differential form of Ohm’s law. Dielectric and magnetic permeability; relative per­mittivity and permeability of electric and magnetic ma­terials; energy density of electric and magnetic fields; fer­romagnetic materials; hysteresis and dissipation; eddy currents; Lenz’s law. Charges in magnetic field: helicoidal motion, cyclotron frequency, drift in crossed E-and B-fields. Energy of a magnetic dipole in a magnetic field; dipole moment of a current loop.
Linear resistors and Ohm’s law; Joule’s law; work done by an electromotive force; ideal and non-ideal batter­ies, constant current sources, ammeters, voltmeters and ohmmeters. Nonlinear elements of given V -I characteristic. Capacitors and capacitance(also for a single electrode with respect to infinity); self-induction and inductance; energy of capacitors and inductors; mutual inductance; time con­stants for RL and RC circuits. AC circuits: complex amplitude; impedance of resistors, inductors, capacitors, and combination circuits; phasor diagrams; current and voltage resonance; active power.
Propagation of harmonic waves: phase as a linear func­tion of space and time; wave length, wave vector, phase and group velocities; exponential decay for waves propa­gating in dissipative media; transverse and longitudinal waves; the classical Doppler effect. Waves in inhomo­geneous media: Fermat’s principle, Snell’s law. Sound waves: speed as a function of pressure (Young’s or bulk modulus) and density, Mach cone. Energy carried by waves: proportionality to the square of the amplitude, continuity of the energy flux.
Superposition of waves: coherence, beats, standing waves, Huygens’ principle, interfer­ence due to thin films (conditions for intensity minima and maxima only). Diffraction from one and two slits, diffraction grating, Bragg reflection.
Interaction of electromagnetic waves with mat­ter
Geometrical optics and photometry
Approximation of geometrical optics: rays and optical images; a partial shadow and full shadow. Thin lens ap­proximation; construction of images created by ideal thin lenses; thin lens equation Lu­minous flux and its continuity; illuminance; luminous intensity.
Telescopes and microscopes: magnification and resolv­ing power; diffraction grating and its resolving power; interferometers.
Emission and absorption spectra for hydrogen-like atoms (for other atoms —qualitatively), and for molecules due to molecular oscillations; spectral width and lifetime of excited states. Pauli exclusion principle for Fermi parti­cles. Particles (knowledge of charge and spin): electrons, electron neutrinos, protons, neutrons, photons; Comp­ton scattering. Protons and neutrons as compound par­ticles. Atomic nuclei, energy levels of nuclei (qualita­tively); alpha-, beta-and gamma-decays; fission, fusion and neutron capture; mass defect; half-life and exponen­tial decay. Photoelectric effect.
Concepts of thermal equilibrium and reversible pro­cesses; internal energy, work and heat; Kelvin’s tem­perature scale; entropy; open, closed, isolated systems; first and second laws of thermodynamics. Kinetic the­ory of ideal gases: Avogadro number, Boltzmann factor and gas constant; translational motion of molecules and pressure; ideal gas law; translational, rotational and os­cillatory degrees of freedom; equipartition theorem; in­ternal energy of ideal gases; root-mean-square speed of molecules. Isother­mal, isobaric, isochoric, and adiabatic processes; specific heat for isobaric and isochoric processes; forward and reverse Carnot cycle on ideal gas and its efficiency; ef­ficiency of non-ideal heat engines.
Heat transfer and phase transitions
Phase transitions (boiling, evaporation, melting, subli­mation) and latent heat; saturated vapor pressure, rel­ative humidity; boiling; Dalton’s law; concept of heat conductiv­ity; continuity of heat flux.
Being familiar with basic techniques for increasing experimental accuracy (e.g. measuring many periods in­stead of a single one, minimizing the influence of noise, etc).
Expressing the final results and experimental uncer­tainties with a reasonable number of significant digits, and rounding off correctly.
Identification of dominant error sources, and reasonable estimation of the magnitudes of the experimental uncer­tainties of direct measurements (using rules from docu­mentation, if provided).
Transformation of a dependence to a linear form by ap­propriate choice of variables and fitting a straight line to experimental points. Finding the linear regression pa­rameters (gradient, intercept and uncertainty estimate) either graphically, or using the statistical functions of a calculator (either method acceptable).
Simplification of formulae by factorization and expan­sion. Solving linear systems of equations. Solving equa­tions and systems of equations leading to quadratic and biquadratic equations; selection of physically meaning­ful solutions. Summation of arithmetic and geometric series.
Finding derivatives of elementary functions, their sums, products, quotients, and nested functions. Integration as the inverse procedure to differentiation. Finding defi­nite and indefinite integrals in simple cases: elementary functions, sums of functions, and using the substitution rule for a linearly dependent argument. Making definite integrals dimensionless by substitution. Geometric in­terpretation of derivatives and integrals. Finding constants of integration using initial con­ditions. Concept of gradient vectors (partial derivative formalism is not needed).
Using linear and polynomial approximations based on Taylor series. Linearization of equations and expressions. Perturbation method: calculation of corrections based on unperturbed solutions. Numerical integration using the trapezoidal rule or adding rectangles
© Copyrights 2019. IPhO. All Rights Reserved
International Board Members 2018
History Of IPhO
Pasr And Future IPhOs