The 2020 University Physics Competition began on Friday, November 6, 2020, at 6pm MDT (Mountain Daylight Time), which is Saturday, November 7, 2020, 1am GMT/UTC, when the contest problems below were posted.
Problem A: Ion Thrusters to Saturn
A spacecraft is in a circular orbit around the Earth, with an orbital period of 90 minutes. The spacecraft has a total mass of 5,000 kg, including fuel. The spacecraft is equipped with ion thrusters that can provide a constant thrust of 400 millinewtons, with a specific impulse of 4,000 seconds. Our goal is to place the spacecraft into a circular orbit around Saturn, with an orbital period of 40 hours. What is the minimum amount of fuel this will take? What will be the duration of the trip? How should the thrusters be controlled during the journey?
Problem B: Quadcopter Stability in Wind
We have designed a quadcopter UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) drone that has a mass of 1.5 kg, and is powered by four rotors which can each generate up to 7 Newtons of thrust. The rotors of the drone are each centered 50 cm from its center of mass, and arranged in a square. Determine the maximum windspeed for safe operation of the quadcopter, so that it can stay within 20 cm of a target location. Note that real wind is not steady, varying in magnitude and direction.
Results of the 2020 University Physics Competition were posted on January 18, 2021.
To download a printable pdf award certificate for your team, set your browser to: http://www.uphysicsc.com/certificates2020/*.pdf
Here * is your team number. For example if your team number is 200, this is: http://www.uphysicsc.com/certificates2020/200.pdf
If you would like us to send paper award certificates for your team through the mail, please email us (director@uphysicsc.com) with your current postal mailing address. We will send one set of certificates for each team, so please send us only one address. We will not mail a separate certificate to each of the three members of your team.
The following announcement of results was made on Monday, January 18, 2021:
Full results announcement and complete listing of all medals in the 2020 University Physics Competition
We are very pleased to announce the results of the eleventh
annual University Physics Competition. The
University Physics Competition is an international contest for undergraduate
students, who worked in teams of up to three students at their home colleges
and universities all over the world, and spent 48 hours during the weekend of
November 6, 7, & 8, 2020, analyzing an applied scenario using the
principles of physics, and writing a formal paper describing their work.
In this year’s competition 346 teams submitted
papers for judging. 244 teams selected “Problem
A – Ion Thrusters to Saturn” and 102 teams selected “Problem B – Quadcopter
Stability in Wind.”
Univ. of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. Joint Institute
For Problem A, the Gold Medal Winning Teams were:
Team 340: Xie Mengxiang, Xiao Yao, & Zhao Yingshan
Institution: Tongji University,
China
Faculty Sponsor: Ma Yan
Team 340's 2020 Problem A Gold Medal Winning Paper
Team 354: Bibek Bhujel, Fahrudin Delic, & Carmelo
Desales Ortiz
Institution: Jacobs University Bremen,
Germany
Faculty Sponsor: Peter Schupp
Team 354's 2020 Problem A Gold Medal Winning Paper
Team 426: Andrew McEntaggart, Adele Payman, & Aulden
Jones
Institution: Georgia Institute of
Technology, USA
Faculty Sponsor: Edwin Greco
Team 426's 2020 Problem A Gold Medal Winning Paper
Team 447: Yasin Sönmez, Arda Aydın, & Batuhan
Keskin
Institution: Boğaziçi University,
Turkey
Faculty Sponsor: Ilmar Gahramanov
Team 447's 2020 Problem A Gold Medal Winning Paper
For
problem B, the Gold Medal Winning Teams were:
Team 335: Zhu Guorui,
Institution: Tongji University, China
Faculty Sponsor: Ma Yan
Team 335's 2020 Problem B Gold Medal Winning Paper
Team 380: Chen Qiuyu, Zhan Haidong, & Zhang Chongfa
Institution: National University of Defense Technology, China
Faculty
Sponsor: Peng Gang
Team 380's 2020 Problem B Gold Medal Winning Paper
Of the 346 papers submitted in this year's University
Physics Competition, 6 teams (1.7%) were ranked as Gold Medal Winners, 54 teams
(15%) were ranked as Silver Medal Winners, 99 teams (29%) were ranked as Bronze
Medal Winners, and 187 teams (54%) were ranked as Accomplished Competitors.
We extend our sincerest congratulations to each of
the competing teams for their excellent work and their enthusiasm for physics!
Kelly S. Cline
Carroll College; Helena, MT
Director of the University Physics Competition
www.uphysicsc.com
