Nowhere is there something like the Shalhevet Freier Physics Tournament!
Arranged annually by the Weizmann Institute's Young@Science department, the tournament commemorates the late Mr. Shalhevet Freier who died in 1993. One can hardly think of better way to honor Mr. Freier. Physics, youth science education and locking mechanisms - all of high interest to Mr. Freier - are combined in this tournament.

Teams of high school students are challenged to build a safe-locking device based on scientific principles. All teams gather at Young@Science for the great tournament happening. They are then invited to the department's Laub Youth Village to present their safes on the tournament day. Each team has to break into the safes of their peers within tightly allocated time intervals according to a carefully designed schedule.

Prominent professors of the Faculty of Physics volunteer to serve as referees. Moving from one safe to the next they evaluate the idea, its implementation, the functional performance and the appearance of each safe. Moreover, they interview each team evaluating the scientific comprehension of the locking mechanism of its members. The final mark for each team is a weighted average of the referee grade, the grade all the other teams gave its safe, and the number of teams who failed to open its safe.

We have some interesting indications that the tournament is gaining popularity among all parties involved:

• The number of schools participating is increasing steadily - up to 53 teams in 2004, among them two teams from Canada.
• Professors volunteer to serve as referees, even though it requires devoting a full hard day of work.
• Other scientists come on their own to watch the annual vintage of safes and original ideas.
• Research students enthusiastically agree to serve as tutors of the teams on the tournament day.
• School-teachers follow the teams of their school giving up a day or two of their Pessach vacation.

However the most exciting aspect of the tournament is the time, devotion and talent the team members devote, already starting several months ahead of the tournament days. They have to come up with possible locking mechanisms and to select the most appropriate one. They should ascertain the feasibility of its implementation and occasionally build a simplified model. Next, they should calculate the optimal parameters of all the locking apparatus components and build the safe. Finally, they have to test the safe under normal conditions, to guarantee its robustness and to assure an overall respectable appearance.

Participants are thus exposed to the entire process of inventing an apparatus based on a scientific concept. The process starts with the comprehension of the specification it should meet and the conception of an idea, eventually matures to the tough battle of the competitive market… Oops, tournament.

Moreover, each year we issue a booklet describing the year's safes and their locking mechanisms. Some participants spend significant time ahead of the tournament days studying and explaining to their peers the locking mechanisms of previous years, in order to be better prepared to the task of breaking competing safes. Some even go to museums and study the mechanisms behind various exhibits, to gain yet further understanding into how things work. It is hard to think of better ways to stimulate such extensive volunteer scientific study.

By the evening of the tournament day some of the tension is relieved, and the participants are ready to attend a scientific lecture by one of the prominent Institute scientists.

All participants are accommodated in the Laub Youth Village for that night. Well, not true. This year we had more participants than the village could accommodate. We had to ask those living nearby to sleep at home and come back the next morning.

The second day is devoted to an exhibition of all participating safes. Each team is proud to demonstrate its own invention to fellow participants, parents, teachers, friends and curious Weizmann Institute staff. This happening is concluded with another top-level popular scientific lecture followed by the climax: the announcement of the winning teams.

The 10th Shalhevet Freier Physics Tournament will take place at the Weizmann Institute on April 20-21st, 2005. Over 50 teams, hundreds of physics enthusiasts will all gather. Won't you come as well?

High-school students taking part in the tournament
- at work!

Working team and advisory board?

Seems we have cracked it, now we can smile…