Slovak Physics Olympiad Cat A case studies
Slovak Physics Olympiad Cat A · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Slovak Physics Olympiad Category A (Fyzikálna olympiáda, kategória A) is the top tier of Slovakia's national physics competition, aimed at upper-secondary students who intend to study physics, engineering, or a related field at university. It runs in successive rounds - school, district/regional, and national - with the national round combining theoretical problems and an experimental task, followed by an oral defense of solutions before a jury. The Slovak Physics Olympiad Cat A case studies are 5 cases and about 3,401 words.
1Trolley on an incline with a hanging mass
A laboratory trolley of mass M = 0.80 kg rolls on a straight track inclined at angle α = 12° to the horizontal. Friction in the axle is negligible, but the track's small wheels have total moment of inertia I w = 4.0×10⁻⁵ kg·m² and radius r = 5.0 mm, so their rotation cannot be ignored when the trolley accelerates.
825 words, about 4 min2Sealed flask: evaporation, vapour pressure and a non-ideal gas
A rigid 2.0 L glass flask at 20 °C contains dry air at 1.00×10⁵ Pa plus a few millilitres of liquid ethanol. The flask is sealed and left until equilibrium.
649 words, about 3 min3Resonance tube with an unknown end correction
A student measures the speed of sound using a resonance tube closed at one end by a movable piston and driven by a tuning fork of frequency f = 512 Hz. She finds the first two resonances at piston positions L₁ = 15.8 cm and L₂ = 49.2 cm, measured from the open end of the tube to the piston face.
567 words, about 3 min4Two capacitors, a switch and a surprising reading
A student builds a circuit: a 12 V ideal battery, a switch S, and two capacitors in series - C₁ = 4.0 µF and C₂ = 12 µF - with a voltmeter connected across C₂. The voltmeter has finite resistance R V = 10 MΩ; the capacitors are ideal.
651 words, about 3 min5Photoelectric effect: stopping voltage that will not behave
A student illuminates a zinc cathode (work function W = 4.3 eV) in a vacuum photocell with monochromatic ultraviolet light. She measures the stopping voltage U s needed to reduce the photocurrent to zero, using light of two wavelengths: λ₁ = 250 nm gives U s = 0.66 V, and λ₂ = 280 nm gives U s = 0.13 V.
709 words, about 4 min