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IPhO 2012: how magnets curve the water

This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 2013 Eur. J. Phys. 34 S35 (http://iopscience.iop.org/0143-0807/34/4/S35) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more

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IOP PUBLISHING Eur. J. Phys. 34 (2013) S35S48

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS

doi:10.1088/0143-0807/34/4/S35

IPhO 2012: how magnets curve the water

J Kalda 1 , J Kikas 2 , M Heidelberg 3 , S Ainsaar 3 2 and R Lohmus
1 2 3

CENS, Institute of Cybernetics, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Department of Physics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

E-mail: kalda@ioc.ee

Received 14 January 2013, in nal form 20 March 2013 Published 28 May 2013 Online at stacks.iop.org/EJP/34/S35
Abstract

An overview of the 43rd International Physics Olympiad (held in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia) is given; this includes short summaries of the problems and competition results. Experimental problem no 1 is discussed in detail, including the full text, solution, and additional theoretical analysis. In this experiment, laser beam reection from the water surface is used to calculate the recession depth of the water surface above a strong permanent magnet; this result is used to determine the magnetic permeability of the water. (Some gures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction

The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is the largest and most prestigious competition in solving physics problems for general school students [15]. It was started in 1967 in Warsaw with ve participating countries. It has now grown extensively. Last summer 80 countries with 378 contestants participated in the 43rd IPhO, held in Estonia (Tallinn/Tartu). The competition was organized by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research via the Estonian Information Technology Foundation with active participation by the leading Estonian universities the University of Tartu and Tallinn University of Technology, and the Estonian Physical Society. The ten-day event contained theoretical and experimental rounds, where the students had 5+5 hours for solving three theoretical and two experimental problems, correspondingly.
1.1. Traditions and innovations

While the IPhO has strong traditions and rmly established regulations [6], it is still open to innovations from modern technologies. Four novelties introduced in Estonia should be mentioned.
0143-0807/13/040035+14$33.00 c 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK & the USA S35

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For the rst time the event took place in two cities: while the students competed in the old university city of Tartu, the International Board, consisting of the leaders of the delegations, and the markers worked in Tallinn. This was made possible by extensive use of IC technologies for communicating electronically the texts of problems and the students solutions between the cities. Also, a teleconference for each delegation was organized. Further, in order to promote international collaboration in the physical sciences, the city of Tartu was declared for one day the World Capital of Physics. This event comprised many open-air activities all over the city and culminated with a lecture by the Nobel Prize winner Sir Harold Kroto. Hopefully, the World Capital of Physics will become a traditional part of the IPhO. As the third novel feature, the competition was preceded by an international online competition Physics Cup IPhO2012 [7, 8]; the winners were presented their awards at the IPhO 43rd Closing Ceremony. The competition was aimed to motivate students studying physics on a regular basis and received very positive feedback from its 268 participants from 46 countries. The participants also included the absolute winner and eight gold medallists of the 43rd IPhO (though, it is impossible to measure the role of the Physics Cup in their preparation). There will be no Physics Cup preceding the 44th IPhO, but hopefully the event will return. Finally, there was a career day during which the students had an opportunity to visit the information booths of some of the leading universities in the world, for example, Oxford University (who also represented Cambridge University), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the National University of Singapore.
2. Problems

According to the statutes of the competition, it is the responsibility of the organizing country to prepare the problems. For this task an Academic Committee was formed well in advance. The overall process of discussing, selecting and rening the problems, as well as designing and manufacturing the experimental setups took about two years.
2.1. Design of the problems: the targets

The majority of the team leaders of IPhO prefer problems which emphasize creativity and physically rich content over mathematical skills and solving speed [9]; devising such problems was the primary target before the Academic Committee. Meanwhile, there are additional requirements: (i) the problems should contain both simple questions (so that all the participants would get at least some marks) and difcult questions (so that only the best student would get a nearly perfect score. The target is that half of the contestants should be able to get at least half of the marks [6]; (ii) the problems should be relatively easy to grade, so that a fair grading of all the papers can be achieved within a few days; (iii) the problem texts should not be too long, so that the contestants can spend more time on solving the problems, rather than reading. Typically, very creative and open-ended problems do not satisfy the requirement of (ii). Also, requirements (ii) and (iii) are contradictory: problems with many sub-questions are easier to grade. So, a certain compromise is unavoidable. According to the response we got from the contestants and their supervisors, we succeeded at least to some extent in achieving our targets. Below is a brief summary of the problems, together with the main ideas for solving them. Those readers who want to try the problems without suggestions of how to solve them can download the full text of the problems from the webpage of the 43rd IPhO [10]. A limited

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Figure 1. A sketch of streamlines around an aircrafts wing.

number of experimental setups are also still available. Please send your inquiry to the Gifted and Talented Development Centre, University of Tartu, (e-mail: viire@ut.ee, subject: IPhO 2012 setup).
2.2. Theory problem no 1: focus on sketches

The aim of the rst problem was to demonstrate that graphs and sketches are important tools for physicists which can help them grasp the physical essence of the process. It had three independent parts, each of which had three questions with increasing difculty. The rst part studied how to optimally throw a ball to the topmost point of a spherical building of a given radius: the students needed to sketch the shape of the optimal trajectory, and to calculate the minimal throwing speed. This calculation tested the mathematical insight of the students. While an optimal solution had only a few steps, a brute force approach was deemed to fail. The second part studied an intriguing phenomenon: during the take-off of aircrafts, in the case of high relative humidity, a stream of water droplets is generated behind the wings. Using a sketch of streamlines in the aircrafts frame of reference (see gure 1), the students were asked to determine the spot where the droplets appear rst. The contestants needed to understand that the droplets will appear because of adiabatic cooling, and that the strongest cooling happens in a place where the pressure is minimal, hence the air speed in the wings frame is maximal, i.e. where the streamline distance is the smallest. The students were also asked to estimate the critical speed using the following data: relative humidity of the air r = 90%, specic heat of air at constant pressure c p = 1.00 103 J(kg K )1 , pressure of saturated water vapour, psa = 2.31 kPa at the temperature Ta = 293 K and psb = 2.46 kPa at Tb = 294 K (additionally, they were allowed to take measurements with a ruler from the streamline sketch). The third part dealt with the magnetic eld created by magnetic strawsby superconducting cylindrical tubes of length l and diameter r l carrying an axial magnetic ux which exits the straws through its open ends. The students were asked to sketch the magnetic eld lines in an axial cross-section of a straw, calculate the axial tension force, and determine the force between two antiparallel straws which are at a distance l from each other. While the tension force can be easily calculated via the change of the magnetic eld energy by a small virtual lengthening of the cylinder, the main challenge was how to nd the interaction force between two straws. The contestants needed to notice that the endpoints of the straws are essentially magnetic monopoles, and derive the interaction force between two magnetic monopoles via matching electric and magnetic quantities.

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Figure 2. An idealized model of a Kelvin water dropper.

2.3. Theory problem no 2: Kelvin water dropper

The second problem proposed an idealized model of the Kelvin water dropper, a device which generates voltage via a water ow in a T-shaped pipe. There is a grounded water reservoir from which water ows through a T-pipe; from the endpoints of the T-pipe, water droplets fall into bowls; the bowls are electrically cross-connected to screening cylindrical electrodes surrounding the pipes, see gure 2. Water (of given surface tension and density) was assumed to be electrically conducting. Also, the diameter of the droplets was assumed to be much larger than the pipes diameter. The students were asked to determine the size of the droplets when they separate from the nozzles due to the free fall acceleration, and the voltage by which they become unstable due to the Rayleigh charge instability (the students were told that the instability will appear for negative gauge pressures inside the droplet; this instability criterion is derived in [11]). They were also asked to nd how the electrode voltage evolves in time, and by which voltage the droplets will no longer be able to land in the bowl. This problem was relatively simple. In order to obtain the Rayleigh charge instability criterion, the students needed to derive and apply the formulas for the capillary pressure under a spherical liquidair interface, and for the pressure caused by an electric eld. Further, they needed to understand what is the effect of the cylindrical electrodes on the electrostatic potential eld near the charged droplets. Finally, they needed to realize that a charged droplet will not land in the bowl if the required increase of its electrostatic potential energy is larger than the energy supplied by the decrease of its gravitational energy (this turned out to be the most difcult task of problem no 2).
2.4. Theory problem no 3: protostar formation

The third problem was devoted to a gravitational collapse of a sparse and cold initially homogeneous spherical cloud of gas. The problem made a somewhat controversial assumption that the initial gravitational energy of the gas is much larger by modulus than its initial heat

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energy: G m RT0 , where R is the gas constant and G is the gravity constant, r0 is the clouds r0 initial radius, T0 is the temperature of the gas, and m is its molar mass. The controversy lies in the fact that such a gas cloud is out of the hydrodynamical equilibrium and hence, cannot be found in the interstellar environment. However, as a Gedankenexperiment, such a model serves as a tool to demonstrate several phenomena and concepts which really do work in the dynamics of interstellar gas. The students were asked to determine the time duration of the collapse using Keplers laws. They needed to gure out that falling along a straight line can be considered as moving along a degenerate elliptical orbit. Further, the initial stage of the collapse was assumed to be isothermal (at the thermal equilibrium with the environment). The contestants were asked to determine the heat energy radiated by the gas during that stage. Here, a very common mistake (which was made even by the very best contestants) was that the radiated heat was equated to the loss of the gravitational energy, forgetting that most of it goes to the kinetic energy of the free fall of the gas: what is radiated is the energy performed on the compression of the gas, pdV . It should be stressed that for real astrophysical gas clouds, the former approach can be actually the valid one: in the absence of separate massive attraction centres, gas clouds are always close to the hydrodynamical equilibrium. Then, the contraction rate is controlled by cooling, and the kinetic energy can be neglected. The model suggested in this task corresponds to a gas cloud falling onto a separate massive attraction centre. It was designed to test the ability of the students to handle correctly the rst law of thermodynamics when several effects need to be taken into account. Finally, the students needed to study the second stage of the collapse when the gas is opaque and therefore thermally isolated from the environment. In particular, they needed to estimate the nal radius and temperature of the gas cloud when hydrodynamical equilibrium is reached; this can be easily done as soon as it is understood that the collapse becomes adiabatic.

2.5. Experimental problem no 2: nonlinear black box

The second experimental problem dealt with an electrical black box that had two nonlinear elements: an unknown nonlinear resistance (tunnel diode was used), connected in parallel to a supercapacitor of unknown capacitance. The black box also had a switch which enabled a small inductor (of a negligible active resistance), connected in series with the nonlinear resistance. The contestants could use a constant current source (I0 = 6 mA), and a custom, U , and the design multimetre, which recorded voltage V , current I , the time derivatives V ratio V/I . In the rst part of the problem, the capacitance was assumed to be constant. The students were asked to determine the capacitance, and to draw the I V -curve of the nonlinear resistance. This was a relatively simple task: for small voltage of the capacitance, almost all the current . Once we know the capacitance, the capacitors goes to the capacitance, hence C = I0 /V current can be found as CV , so that the current through the nonlinear element can be either for the charging cycle of the capacitor, or I = CV for the discharging found as I = I0 CV cycle (the black box is disconnected from the current source, the capacitor discharges through the nonlinear resistance). In the second part, the assumption of constant capacitance was abandoned, and the task was to determine its CV -dependence. This was a more tricky task: the students needed to notice that if both the charging and discharging cycles of the capacitor are used, the current I (V ) through the nonlinear element is the same for both cycles and hence can be eliminated from the system of two equations.

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Figure 3. The setup of the rst experiment; for a complete list of components, see section 3.1. Upper left insert: water dish (5) with a permanent magnet (7); upper right insert: digital screen of the calliper (3), together with the laser pointer (4); lower left insert: bright dot on the screen (6), due to the reected laser beam.

Finally, the students were asked to enable the inductor, to obtain again the I V -curve, and explain the difference between the new curve, and the curves obtained in the rst part. The contestants needed to notice that the differences between the two graphs are localized into the V < 0) was measured. region where, without the inductance, negative differential resistance ( d dI Further, they needed to understand that if positive resistance leads to damped oscillations in LC-circuit, negative resistance will cause an instabilityoscillations of increasing amplitude. Then, what is recorded in the experiment is the time-average of the oscillating current.
3. Experiment no 1: the magnetic permeability of water

Though the magnetic eld affects all materials and substances, it is thought that the observable effects are limited to magnetic materials (ferromagnetics) only. Still, using sensitive techniques, it is possible to also observe such effects for non-magnetic, in particular, diamagnetic materials. Such an approach was taken as the base of the experiment, where it was proposed to the students that they measure the inuence of a strong permanent magnet on water surface and calculate from the measurements the magnetic permeability of water.
3.1. The experimental setup

The setup comprised of a stand ((1); the numbers in braces correspond to the numbers in gure 3), a digital calliper (3), a laser pointer (4), a dish with water (5) and a cylindrical axially magnetized permanent magnet (7). The dish was xed to the base of the stand by the magnets pull. The laser was xed to the calliper, the base of which was fastened to the stand.

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The calliper allowed horizontal displacement of the laser. It was possible to keep the onoff button of the laser pressed with the help of a conical tube (13). The students were asked to keep the depth of the water above the magnet reasonably close to 1 mm (if shallower, the water surface would have been so curved that it would have been difcult to take readings from the screen). A cup of water (15) and a syringe (16) were available for the water level adjustment (the contestants were informed that adding 13 ml of water would raise the level by 1 mm). A sheet of graph paper ((2); the screen) was to be xed to the vertical plate with small magnetic tablets (14). The following numerical values were given to the contestants: horizontal distance between the magnets centre and the screen L0 = 490 mm; magnetic ux density at the magnets axis, at the height of 1 mm from the at surface B0 = 0.61 T; density of water w = 1000 kg m3 ; free-fall acceleration g = 9.8 m s2 ; vacuum permeability 0 = 4 107 H m1 . The contestants were asked to check (and adjust, if needed) the alignment of the centre of the magnet in two perpendicular directions. The vertical axis of the magnet needed to intersect with the laser beam, and it also needed to intersect with the black line (12) on the support plate. The idea of the experiment was to use a laser beam, reected from the water surface, to measure the slope tan of the surface. If the laser was shifted parallel to the water surface, it was possible to determine tan as a function of a horizontal coordinate x. Finally, the recession h(x ) of the water surface could be found as an integral of the slope. Once the recession of the surface at the centre of the magnet was known, together with the magnetic ux density B, it was possible to obtain the magnetic permeability from the condition that a liquid surface takes an equipotential shape.
3.2. Optimization of the experimental setup

The main challenge for the design of the setup was how to achieve as high as possible accuracy. The precision of the measured tan can be increased by increasing the distance between the point where the laser hits the surface, and the screen. It was also necessary to decrease the diameter of the laser beam: a wide beam hits the surface in the region where it is signicantly curved, it covers different slopes, and as a result, the spot on the screen will be elongated vertically. It is difcult to take a precise reading of the position of the centre of such an elongated bright spot. There are two ways to reduce this effect: rst, by reducing the curvature of the water surface by using larger magnets and increasing the distance between the magnet and the water surface. The second way is to reduce the diameter of the laser beam. One might think that the diameter of the beam can be reduced by a system of lenses: the rst lens will focus the beam into a point at the surface, and the second lens will focus the beam into a point at the screen. However, this method is not usable, because then the vertical position of the spot on the screen would be independent of the water surface slope. Indeed, all the rays which start from the given point at the water surface, regardless of their direction, would be focused onto the same point on the screen. So, the only way to reduce the beam diameter is by optimizing the diameter of the diaphragm attached to the laser. The beam widens due to diffraction, and its diameter can be estimated as + 1.2 L/ , where is the wavelength of the laser and L is the length of the laser beam; the optimum is achieved for = L . With smaller wavelength, a narrower beam can be obtained; this is why violet lasers with = 404 nm were used. There was still a small issue: the sensitivity of the human eye is very low with respect to the violet light; this was solved by using white paper sheets as the screen material. White printer paper is uorescent, and on such a screen, an otherwise too dim laser beam spot becomes sufciently bright.

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Figure 4. Options for the water surface shape.

3.3. Experimental task as presented to the contestants

Throughout this problem, you are not asked to estimate any uncertainties and you do not need to take into account the effects of the surface tension. Part A: qualitative shape of the water surface. When a cylindrical magnet is placed below the water surface, the latter becomes curved. Observe what is the shape of the water surface above the magnet; according to this observation, decide if the water is diamagnetic ( < 1) or paramagnetic ( > 1). Write the letter corresponding to the correct option in gure 4 on the answer sheet, together with an inequality > 1 or < 1. Part B: exact shape of the water surface. Curving of the water surface can be checked with high sensitivity by measuring the reection of the laser beam by the surface. We use this effect to calculate the dependence of the depth of the water on the horizontal position above the magnet. Measure the dependence of the height y of the laser spot on the screen on the calliper reading x (cf gure 3). You should cover all the usable range of calliper displacements. Fill the results into the table in the answer sheet. Draw the graph of the obtained dependence. Using the obtained graph, determine the angle 0 between the beam and the horizontal area of the water surface. Please note that the slope (tan ) of the water surface can be expressed as follows: tan cos2 0 y y0 (x x0 ) tan 0 , 2 L0 + x x0

where y0 is the height of the laser spot on the screen when the beam is reected from the water surface at the axis of the magnet, and x0 is the respective position of the calliper. Calculate the values of the water surface slope and ll them into the table on the answer sheet. Please note that it may be possible to simplify your calculations if you substitute some combination of terms in the expression from the previous task with a reading from the last graph. Calculate the height of the water surface relative to the surface far from the magnet as a function of x and ll it into the table on the answer sheet. Draw the graph of the latter dependence. Indicate on it the region where the beam hits the water surface directly above the magnet. Part C: magnetic permeability. Using the results of Part B, calculate the value of 1 (magnetic susceptibility), where is the relative magnetic permeability of the water. Write your nal formula and the numerical result on the answer sheet.
3.4. Solution of the experimental problem no 1

Part A. Observing reections from the water surface (in particular, those of straight lines, such as the edge of a sheet of paper), it is easy to see that the prole has one minimum and has a relatively at bottom, i.e. the correct answer is Option D. This prole implies that water is pushed away from the magnet, which means < 1 (recall that ferromagnets with > 1 are pulled).

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Figure 5. The spot height y on the screen as a function of the horizontal position x of the calliper.

The solid curve corresponds to a water depth of about 3 mm above the magnet (using the data from table 1); the dashed one corresponds to 1 mm.

Table 1. Measurement data for the spot height y on the screen.

x (mm) y (mm) x (mm) y (mm) x (mm) y (mm)

10 11.5 44 40.3 66 50

15 15.6 46 40.8 68 53.6

20 19.8 48 42 70 56.7

25 24.3 50 43.2 72 59.5

30 30.2 52 44.4 74 61.6

32 33.2 54 45.3 76 63.5

34 37.2 56 45.8 78 65.3

36 40.5 58 45.4 80 67

38 42.2 60 44.4 85 70.9

40 41.4 62 43.6 90 74.9

42 40.3 64 46.2

Part B. The height of the spot on the screen y is tabulated in table 1 as a function of the horizontal position x of the calliper. These are the results of a pre-competition test measurement which correspond to the water depth of about 3 mm above the magnet. Note that due to water surface vibrations, the last digit of the tabulated values of y is actually unreliable; rounding these values to integer millimetres was considered a reasonable approximation. If the water surface were at, the dependence of x on y would be linear, and the tangent y , where x is a horizontal displacement of the of the angle 0 would be given by tan 0 = x pointer, and y is the respective displacement of the spot height. For the extreme positions of the pointer, the beam hits the water surface so far from the magnet that there, the surface is essentially unperturbed; connecting the respective points on the graph in gure 5, we obtain a line corresponding to a at water surface, the red line. Using these two extreme data points .911.5 38 . we can also easily calculate the angle 0 = arctan 7490 10 For faster calculations, y y0 (x x0 ) tan 0 (appearing in the formula given) can be read from the previous graph as the distance between the red line and the blue line; the red line cos2 0 0.31. The is given by equation yr = y0 + (x x0 ) tan 0 . One can also precalculate 1 2

S44 Table 2. Calculated values for the surface slope; z = tan 105 .

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x (mm) z x (mm) z x (mm) z

10 0 44 128 66 388

15 10 46 53 68 254

20 27 48 26 70 154

25 66 50 0 72 74

30 204 52 26 74 40

32 303 54 72 76 20

34 473 56 145 78 6

36 591 58 278 80 2

38 597 60 449 85 2

40 428 62 606 90 0

42 239 64 536

Table 3. Calculated values for the surface recession depth.

x (mm) h (m) x (mm) h (m) x (mm) h (m)

10 0 44 66 66 23

15 0 46 68 68 17

20 1 48 69 70 12

25 4 50 69 72 10

30 10 52 69 74 9

32 15 54 68 76 8

34 23 56 66 78 8

36 34 58 61 80 8

38 46 60 54 85 8

40 56 62 44 90 8

42 63 64 32

calculations lead to table 2 (with z = tan 105 ; as mentioned above, during the competition, lesser precision with two signicant numbers is sufcient). The water height can be obtained as the integral h = tan dx. Thus, we calculate the water height in table 3 cell-by-cell, by adding to the height in the previous cell the product of (tan i+1 + tan i ). the horizontal displacement xi+1 xi with the average slope 1 2 Note that the water level height at the end of the table should also be 0 (this corresponds also to an unperturbed region); the non-zero result is explained by the measurement uncertainties. 10 mm . One can improve the result by subtracting from h a linear trend 8 m x 80 mm The position of the magnet can be found by measuring its diameter 2R with the calliper (nd the positions when the laser beam hits the edges of the magnet and determine the distance between these positionsthe result is about 24 mm), and using the symmetry: the magnet is placed symmetrically with respect to the surface elevation curve. Part C. The free surface of an incompressible uid takes an equipotential shape: this is a surface along which the potential energy density is constant. For our water, the potential 2 (1 1 ) B2 1 ; the potential energy density associated with the magnetic interaction is 2B 0 20 energy density associated with the Earths gravity is gh. At the water surface, the sum of those two quantities is constant; for a point at the unperturbed surface, this expression equals 1 + gh = 0 and hence, 1 = 20 gh/B2 . Here, h = 120 m stands for to zero, so B2 20 the depth of the water surface at the axis of the magnet; note that we have compensated the cumulative error as described at the end of the previous task and obtained h as the difference between the depth at the magnets axis (121 m) and the half-depth at the right-hand side of the graph (1 m). Putting in the numbers, we obtain 1 = 7.9 106 .

3.5. Theoretically calculated shape of the water surface.

The experimental curves in gure 6 indicate that the deepest recession and hence, the strongest magnetic eld can be found near the edges of the magnet. While this was not part of the experimental problem, one can ask, what is the nature of such a phenomenon: is it a natural feature of permanent cylindrical magnets, or some kind of artefact?

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Figure 6. Water surface recession depth as a function of the horizontal coordinate. The solid curve corresponds to a water depth of about 3 mm above the magnet (using the data from table 1); the dashed one corresponds to 1 mm. The dotted lines are theoretical curves calculated under the assumption of a homogeneous magnetization of an ideally cylindrical permanent magnet.

The magnetic ux density can be calculated analytically, if we assume that the permanent magnet has a homogeneous magnetization M , and a perfectly cylindrical shape. While skipping the mathematical details, let us mention that in terms of the solid angle under which the curved surface of the cylinder is seen from the given point, the axial eld Bz is expressed as Bz = 0 M 4 . From here one can obtain
a+d R + r cos 0 MR d dz, (1) 4 [ ( R + r cos )2 + z2 ]3/2 d where a is the magnets height, and d and r are the axial and radial distances of the current point from the centre of a at surface of the magnet. The radial eld Br can be found from Bz by using the fact that magnetic eld is divergence-free. The result is

Bz (r, d ) =

Br = Br (r, d ) Br (r, d + a ),

(2)

where Br (r, d ) denotes the radial magnetic ux density of a semi-innite magnet, R + r cos 0 MR r r dr d. (3) Br (r, d ) = 2 2 3/2 4 r 0 [ (R + r cos ) + d ] The integrals of equations (1) and (3) can be found numerically; the corresponding recession curves are presented in gure 6 as dotted lines. As one can see, the presence of

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non-axial maxima of the magnetic ux density is a natural feature of permanent magnets. The departure between theoretical and experimental curves is explained by rounded edges of the magnets, and possibly also by inhomogeneous magnetization of the material of the magnets. Note that equation (1) with r = 0 was used to obtain the precise value B0 = 0.61 T given in the problem text. Our Hall sensor was not usable for direct measurements, both due to its physical size and measuring range. Because of that, it was used to measure magnetic ux density at the magnets axis at large distances, and the data were extrapolated according to equation (1) to the distance d = 1 mm.
4. Results of the 43rd IPhO

The absolute winner of the competition was the Hungarian student Attila Szab o, who gained 45.8 points from the maximum 50. He was followed by Hengyun Zhou and Yijun Jiang from the Peoples Republic of China (42.5 and 42,2 points, respectively). The special award for the best theoretical result went also to Attila Szab o (28.4 points from 30); the special award for the best experimental result was given to Kai-Chi Huang from Taiwan (18.4 points from 20). Alexandra Vasilyeva from Russia got the special award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the best girl at the 43rd IPhO (30.9 points). Overall, 45 gold medals, 71 silver medals, 92 bronze medals, and 63 honourable mentions were awarded according to the algorithm prescribed by the statutes of the IPhO [6]. All the names of the award winners can be found at the ofcial website of the 43rd IPhO [10]. Under the section Statistics, one can also nd a link to the full table with detailed scores of all the participants (the names of contestants below the honourable mention threshold are removed as condential information according to the statutes of the IPhO).
4.1. Difculty level of the problems

According to the feedback from the contestants and team leaders, the problems were difcult and interesting. While there is no objective measure for the quality of being interesting, the subjective difculty, relative to the average preparation level of the participants of the given era can be characterized by the score-rank-graph, see gure 7. It should be stressed that these curves cannot be used to compare the absolute difculty of the problems of these competitions which are separated by a long time period, because new countries join the competition, several countries adopt new and more extensive training cycles, etc. Note that in gure 7, the (horizontal) rank scale is not linear: in order to reveal the details of the very best contestants (in the range of the top 15%), a square-root-scale is used, instead. Surprisingly, such a scale straightens nicely almost all the curves (with a linear scale, the left-hand part of the curves would have been concave). Yet, it will be really difcult to explain such a universal scaling law theoretically. This is in particular because the contestants represent an ensemble which is difcult to describe. The best students from each country will not give us a completely random set of students nor the absolute best from the world. Let us analyse the curves in gure 7. To begin with, the problems of the 43rd IPhO fall denitely into the category of difcult ones, alongside with the problems from 1994, 2000, and 2008. Further, on some score-rank-curves kinks may be noticed near the marker points. These are explained by the score shift during the moderation process. During moderation, leaders discuss with the graders to gain points for those solutions to which, they believe, were given an undeservedly small amount of points. Since the medal boundaries (in points) are

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Figure 7. Score-rank-graph of the IPhO-s for the period of 19942012. Each curve has four marker points, which correspond to the medal boundaries (i.e. for each award category, to the last award winner). For 2005 and 2007, detailed data were not available, and the respective curves are constructed using interpolation.

known prior to the moderation, the main emphasis is paid to those contestants who are close to (but below) a threshold.
Acknowledgments

The authors are sincerely grateful to everyone who helped organizing the 43rd IPhO: the Steering Committee members, colleagues from the Academic Committee, graders, Organizing Committee members, and the numerous volunteers. The Estonian Ministry of Education and Research is acknowledged alongside with all the sponsors for the funding of this international venue, one of the largest ever organized in Estonia. Finally, the host institutions and research projects (Estonian Science Targeted Project SF0140077s08 and SF0180058s07, EU Regional Development Fund Centres of Excellence TK124 and TK114) of the authors are acknowledged for their support.
References
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