On March 2, 2014, Harriton’s very own Physics Olympics team placed second overall in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Physics Olympics League (SPPOL). Sweeping the competition with events such as “Bridges,” the team did a great job and will continue to excel in upcoming competitions.

The Physics Olympics team is an extracurricular activity in which students can use their knowledge of physics to compete in different events. Many of the events require students to build catapults and other devices for the purpose of completing a pre-specified mission.

Team captain and Harriton senior Matt Ng leads the team alongside faculty advisor Mr. Guay. Although most members are physics students, anyone is welcome to join the club. The club meets once a week, until the week before the competition, when there are usually practices every day.

For Physics Olympics there are three major tournaments to see which school can most successfully complete each event. This was the final competition of the year, and this win means that the team placed second overall, a great accomplishment for the team.

“In my opinion,” captain Matt Ng says, “this is a huge victory for our school because we practically placed second all by ourselves. We would not have been able to do this without everyone’s hard work this year.”

Senior Matthew Zhao placed both first and second with two bridges that he made for the “Bridges” event. This win enabled him to qualify for the International Bridge Competition that has been held in Chicago for the past couple of years. Other events the team participated in were the Electric Car Bowling, Penny Barge, Physics Trivia, and Physics Relay.

The team felt that they excelled in Physics Relay and Penny Barge because of their diligent preparation. They won first place in the Penny Barge, Physics Relay, and Problem Sets events. The team placed fourth in Electric Car Bowling and tied sixth for Trivia. The Harriton Physics Olympics team will surely continue to sweep the competition and have a great rest of the year!

Look for new updates about the Physics Olympics team and see if it is something that you would like to do!