By all accounts, the separate MS and LP Classical Physics Olympics were a smashing success, if a bit taxing for Mr. Egg and his friends, many of whom suffered in the pursuit of science.

The Egg-hibitions started in each studio with genre selections:

Middle School featured readings from the Hero’s Allegory Genres, Pilgrim’s Progress like tales of young would-be-heroes who venture out on a great adventure, only to encounter villains named Victim, Distraction and Resistance, each bent on thwarting the quest, killing the would-be-hero and throwing him/her into a fiery hell of eternal damnation.

Launchpad showcased excerpts from the Thinking like Richard Feynman Genre, where LPers learned to use the great physicist’s superpower of childlike curiosity combined with deep research to reveal connections between the simplest and most fundamental rules of nature and its most complex patterns, from the tiniest scale to the universe.

After the genre readings Mr. Egg and his friends participated in each studio in six thrill seeking challenges as Eagles competed to see which approach below yielded the best results:

• Trial and error
• Observation and Prediction (aka the Scientific Method) and
• Theory and equation.

Along with many other lessons, Eagles discovered the real world is messy and the gap between theory and reality can grow because of:

• A misunderstanding of the problems, definitions or tools;
• Inaccurate measurement
• Inconsistent units; or
• Other real-world complications.

Eagles also learned solving a large complex problem requires:

• Breaking the problem into smaller problems that are more easily solved;
• Solving those smaller problems with the right tools; or
• Recombining the solutions to address the more complex problem;

The first Olympic event was balancing a lever, so delicately poised that even a smidgen of error meant Mr. Egg would be crushed.  Next Eagles in each studio had to guess which mass would counterbalance a pulley system – one miscalculation and Mr. Egg would be crushed.

Event Three was the rolling ball bobsled, where armed with Kinematic Equations, Eagles chose just the right height, for just the right potential energy to overcome rotational inertia and friction to propel a ball off the edge of the table into a tiny, waiting cup below.

Event Four was a Static Bungee test, designed to calm Mr. Egg’s nerves for Event Five, his dynamic bungee jump into Lake Acton.  One inch short and he’s miss his bucket goal of diving into a river unscathed; one inch long and he’d crack his head on the bottom.

Before the grand finale, Eagles gathered for lessons learned, where several showed not only a deep appreciation for the difficulty of real-world science, but also an interest in science as a calling.

Tensions were high leading into Event Six,.  Teams One and Two were tied; Team Three close behind, Eagles had to calculate eggactly the right angle to shoot Mr. Egg to hit a small target more than 50 yards away.  Alas – Mr. Egg was not expected to survive this challenge.

After a hard-fought battle, the victors were crowned.  Mr Egg and his friends?  Let’s just say sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make a physics omelet.