MSMS physics students traveled to Tuscaloosa, Ala. to compete in the 40th Annual University of Alabama High School Physics Contest on Jan. 29. The contest is open to high schools in Alabama and surrounding states. The MSMS team took home more awards than ever before.

Courtesy of William Funderburk

MSMS physics team receives awards at UA Physics Competition.

In preparation for the competition, the students have been completing practice problems and practicing as a team each Wednesday after study hours. The Physics C/Mechanics class has had the problems as part of their class assignments. The contest itself consisted of timed individual written tests and ciphering tests. The individual test has 32 multiple choice questions (no calculator) and one free response question used in the event of a tie.

Ciphering is a team test in which the four team members answer 16 questions individually to gain points for their team. In addition, the university gives a four-year in-state tuition scholarship to the top two scorers in the written exam if they choose to attend the University of Alabama.

Ciphering, according to seniors Nathan Barlow and Ali Otondo, was the most challenging and stressful. Senior Rhet Hailey, however, said it was his favorite part of the competition: “Fighting with my teammates against other teams in the same division with quick 30 second questions was a rush of exhilaration.” Questions and scores are displayed on a projector, so everyone can see each team member’s score and whether he or she got the questions right. The questions must be answered within 40 second intervals with points gained depending on which interval the question is correctly answered in.

In addition to academic tests, the university even provided a Question and Answer panel with experienced physicists. Following the panel, there was a presentation on the “cool stuff” of physics such as demonstrations of angular momentum using a spinning wheel, a flaming waveform, and a van de Graaff generator.

Out of 400 high schoolers, four MSMS students placed in the top 10 (awards are listed below). In addition, seniors Jason Necaise and Isaiah Williams tied for first place score in the individual tests. For Necaise, “the hardest part of the whole thing was the 10 seconds between hearing Isaiah announced second place and hearing the first place winner because I knew that if he beat me I would never hear the end of it.” However, Necaise answered the bonus free response question more clearly and received first place.

Of all the competing high schools, MSMS won third place.