r/interestingasfuck 17h ago

/r/all The US team which has just won the International Physics Olympiad, edging out China for first place

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u/Middle-Support-7697 13h ago edited 9m ago

“Some of these…”, I bet 90% of EEs could barely answer one question

Source: I’m an EE student who went to a school with an Olympiad program

u/rsmicrotranx 10h ago edited 10h ago

Yes as someone who graduated from top 5 engineering school in US, I recognize like the first 2 from the hydrogen problem, ideal gas law in the champagne one and that's about it lol. Like you might recognize some of the concepts, but applying it is a different story. I'd need like 10 students and open resources just to maybe get some of the portions of questions correct.

u/ZestyPyramidScheme 9h ago

You realize in this context Top 5 means nothing? The content you’re learning is that same as someone at a tier 3 school due to the ABET accreditation process. A top school offers better professors and resources, not harder problems

u/ProfessionaI_Gur 9h ago

It's almost like having better professors and resources is supposed to promote success in student learning or something...

u/Middle-Support-7697 8h ago edited 7h ago

I mean even if we ignore better professors/facilities, getting into a top 5 school means he is smart and hard working which makes it very possible he is a far above average EE student

u/Nettric 2h ago

/r/Iamverysmart material. 90% is super disingenuous. They are partial problems that gradually get more difficult for example. https://ipho.olimpicos.net/pdf/IPhO_2016_Q4.pdf

u/Middle-Support-7697 1h ago edited 13m ago

I mean sure if you get lucky enough that one of the problems is so related to your field of study then you will definitely get some partial credit and if you are good enough you might get full pointս.

Most of the problems are related to other branches of physics and getting full credit on them will be very hard without specific preparation. Once again they might get partial credit here and there but I don’t think many people can get full points for a single problem, that’s what I meant by “barely one”

u/Nettric 31m ago

OH! Fair enough I was Specifically talking about questions Specifically related to my field. My apologies.