The Wonders of Physics Video Contest 2023
First Place Winner
Calvin Cha – The Magnus Effect!
Second Place Winner
Devesh Kumar – Physics of Basketball
Best Video from Someone in Wisconsin
Taylor VanRoy – Thermodynamics of Color
Best Video about the Physics of Motion
Alejandra Aspeitia, Grace Behm, Sara Cabrera Torres, Madeleine Griffith, Brian Siegler, Joycefene Vesper – Conservation of Momentum
Best video about the Physics of Fluids
Nora Oleniczak – The Physics of Floating
Best video about the Physics of Energy
Hope Graf, Anita Gross, Gabriella Zavaleta – Potential and Kinetic Energy For Noobs
Best Video about the Physics of Light
Aleah Butterbrodt, Alivia Froelich, and Briana Renier – The Physics of Rainbows
Best Video about the Physics of Projectiles
David Germundson, Riley Schroedl – Components of Projectile Motion
Best Video using the Metric System
Autumn Openorth, Isabel Spinato, Maya Rygielski, Jill Pergande – Mr. Doppler Explains The Doppler Effect
Best Video about the Physics of Sound
Ethan Matuszak, Caleb Davidsen, Luke Suhm – The 5 Properties of Sound Waves
Best Video about the Physics of Waves
Riley Fitch, Ava Fisher, Taylor Cain, Molly Pluess – Polarization Explained
Best International Video
Vladyslava Kolendzian, Artem Yasinskyi – Thermonuclear synthesis
PASCO Physics Teacher Award
For the teacher whose students sent the most high-quality videos
Sabrina Loehrke, Preble High School (Green Bay, WI)
Best International Teacher
Ukraine
Ivan Telychko and Yulia Bahrii
Physics is the science of matter and energy, and we experience it all around us. Record some of the physics happening around you and share your videos in the contest!
The Wonders of Physics annual show has brought fun and exciting physics demonstrations to the public since 1984. Now, we want YOU to show us your best physics demonstration! Capture the wonders of physics on video and send it to us.
Record yourself doing an amazing physics demonstration, explain the science behind it, and enter the video in the 2023 Wonders of Physics video contest. We will award plaques for the best videos. The best video will receive a $200 prize certificate from Educational Innovations, Inc. Additional awards from US Metric Association, PASCO, and Vernier will also be given. (details listed below)
The 2023 contest closed on June 8th, 2023. Thank you for your submission!
Rules
The rules are simple:
- Create a video demonstrating a physics concept that is 2-3 minutes long (and preferably in landscape orientation, not portrait).
- You must be 18 years or older to enter a video on your own
- If you’re younger than 18 years old, you can submit a video with adult supervision.
- The video must contain only original work – including any music, sound effects and still photographs, etc.
- Be safe! You must ensure proper protection and prevention measures are taken while producing your video.
- And lastly: the video has to be fun!
Helpful Tips:
These are some helpful tips that can make your video stand out!
- Aim for the video to be on the shorter side, about 2 minutes.
- Record your video in landscape mode, which looks better on computer screens.
- Record your video with the highest resolution available to you.
- Speak slowly and clearly.
- Use English or English subtitles (to help our judges).
- Use any background music sparingly, don’t distract from the physics!
- Show an actual demonstration. We are looking for demonstrations of actual physics in these videos, not just the explanation.
- However, make sure you still spend some time explaining what it happening.
Need some help thinking of what physics to record?
Take a look here at some possible experiments, materials, and ideas to help get you started!
Categories
We automatically enter your video in all the categories for which it’s eligible, based on your video and submission form. We think there will be a lot of great videos, so we will probably invent categories in order to be able to nominate many of your great videos. Here are a few examples of the categories:
- Best overall video ($200 award from Educational Innovations, Inc.)
- Best and most accurate use of the Metric System (SI) ($200 award from the US Metric Association, but you MUST only use the metric system throughout the entire video to qualify)
- Best video in various topics in physics (demos about motion, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, light, quantum)
- Best video from someone under the age of 18
- Best video from someone over the age of 64
- Physics/science teachers whose students submitted the largest number of high
quality videos (PASCO is awarding a $200 certificate for this category and a generous donor will give a license to Vernier Video Analysis!) - Best video from someone in Wisconsin
- Best video of a Rube Goldberg machine
- Best video from a physicist
- And likely more!
First Place Winner from 2022
Charlotte Quintanar – The Four Fundamental Forces
Past winners from 2022
You can view all the previous winners from last year here!
Questions?
Still have questions? Reach out to us at wonders@physics.wisc.edu.