Kevin Zhou 2020/2021 Physics Olympiad Training
Syllabus
1 Course Structure
This course is structured around weekly problem sets, each with about 30 problems, ranging in
difficulty from F = ma to IPhO and beyond. You’ll learn by working on this diverse set of problems.
At the end of the week, we’ll have an online meeting to discuss the problems and evaluate
your solutions. Throughout the week, you can contact me at any time by chat or email to ask
for clarifications or hints on the problem. Don’t hesitate to do this, because this is the essential
ingredient that makes tutoring better than learning from a book! You can also ask your fellow
students, or the TA, in the course group chat.
Usually, the entirety of the class will be devoted to discussing problems; I won’t spend much
time introducing the basic material. You should already know calculus-based physics at the level
of Halliday and Resnick. Each problem set will also come with an assigned reading from some of
the textbooks listed below. I expect you to do any necessary reading on your own, doing extra
problems from the textbooks if necessary.
Your problem sets will be stored in a personal Dropbox folder. Official solutions to the problems
will be added to the folder before each class. The solutions were written by me and the past course
TAs, Gopal Goel and Sean Chen, both of whom were USAPhO campers and IPhO gold medalists.
2 Problem Sets
The problems are chosen so that all of them demonstrate different ideas, so you’ll get more out
of the course the more you do. That said, it certainly isn’t necessary to do every problem. Every
problem will have a point value from 1 to 5, and each problem set comes with a cutoff which is
roughly 70% of the point total. If you reach this cutoff, you’ll have a good understanding of the
material. Participants aiming at IPhO gold medals should try essentially everything.
Problems marked with [A] are “advanced”. This doesn’t mean that they’re trickier, but rather
that they require more sophisticated mathematical techniques. These problems are less relevant to
Olympiad physics but are chosen to demonstrate interesting things.
If you’re interested in USAPhO preparation, you should attempt all of the USAPhO problems,
while if you’re interested in the IPhO, you should attempt the international-level (IPhO, APhO,
WoPhO, GPhO, EuPhO) problems. However, these latter problems are also valuable for USAPhO
contestants. Don’t be intimidated by them; they are usually worth 4 or 5 points, but that’s just
because of their length. The difficulty per time for older IPhOs is on par with current USAPhOs,
and I don’t use problems that are unapproachable. Often these longer problems have a lot to teach,
since they have the time to do a more complete analysis of a physical system.
Some problems will be marked with a clock. They should be done under realistic conditions,
which means you should use only pencil, paper and a scientific calculator. During this time you
should write a solution by hand, with the same level of detail you would for a real Olympiad. If
you run out of time but you’re still making progress, feel free to continue, but draw a line on your
solution indicating when time ran out. Common time limits will be
01W – 22.5 minutes, 01m – 45 minutes, 01h – 100 minutes
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Kevin Zhou 2020/2021 Physics Olympiad Training
for a USAPhO A, B, and full modern IPhO problem respectively. (Older IPhO questions are
much shorter, and may have correspondingly shorter times.) After finishing, immediately check your
answers and, if your solution was not complete, reflect on what you could have done differently.
3 Writing Solutions
You should submit your solutions within a day before class. For ease of reference, organize all your
solutions for one problem set in a single PDF, and all PDFs in your Dropbox folder.
As stated above, for timed problems your solutions must be in handwritten Olympiad solution
format, and scanned. For all other problems, handwritten solutions are also preferred, but you can
also use LaTeX, either locally or online at Overleaf. These solutions don’t have to be extremely
detailed: you don’t have to show all your algebra explicitly, and you don’t have to restate anything
written in the question. In general, I’m more concerned with the structure of the solution than the
algebraic steps. That is, emphasize the ideas you used to write down the equations, as much as
how you solved them.
4 Textbooks and Resources
We’ll be using a wide variety of textbooks and resources. A comprehensive list of relevant intro-
ductory books is given in the first section of my second advice file, and relevant chapters will be
mentioned in the suggested readings. The following books are essential, and I recommend getting a
copy of all of them immediately.
• Halliday, Resnick, and Krane, Physics. This book contains the foundational material required;
you should know it forwards and backwards. Even today, a solid understanding of it is enough
to get a gold medal at the IPhO, though of course more knowledge always helps. The 5th
edition is more expensive, but worth it for the extra challenging problems included.
• Mahajan, Order of Magnitude Physics. A nice, short book about dimensional analysis and
estimation. Also see The Art of Insight, a longer work by the same author on the same themes.
• Kleppner and Kolenkow, An Introduction to Mechanics. Used at MIT, written more like a
physics book. Has good problems with a practical emphasis. I recommend getting the 1st
edition, not the 2nd, because the 1st edition has harder problems.
• Morin, Mechanics. Used at Harvard, written more like a math book. Has a large stock of
elegant and tricky, if sometimes contrived mechanics problems. Also contains an excellent,
careful introduction to special relativity.
• Purcell and Morin, Electricity and Magnetism. Does electromagnetism with vector calculus
and relativity baked in. Famous for using relativity to motivate magnetism, rather than just
postulating it. Has well-written problems that provide insight. The 3rd edition is a substantial
improvement on the 2nd, with SI units adopted throughout and more challenging problems.
• The Feynman Lectures on Physics. A wonderful source of physical insight. Most problem sets
will have some chapters assigned for entertainment and enrichment.
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• Wang and Ricardo, Competitive Physics, used by the Singapore physics team. This book
contains very clear, detailed explanations of the theory needed to bridge the gap from an
introductory textbook to the IPhO, especially for thermodynamics and waves. The main
drawback is that many of its problems are physically straightforward but mathematically
tedious; use another source for deeper practice problems.
Besides past Olympiads and textbooks, problems are also sourced from the following books.
• ? 200 Puzzling Physics Problems and 200 More Puzzling Physics Problems. Tricky questions
written in Eastern European style. The first book is highly recommended; the second book is
at times too mathematically contrived to be too relevant to Olympiads, but still lots of fun.
• ? Handouts by Jaan Kalda. These handouts and formula sheets provide excellent training
for Eastern European style Olympiads. Very different in style from the USAPhO (e.g. more
circuits, less relativity/modern physics), but highly recommended. Good solutions written by
students are available here. If you like the style of the EFPhO/NBPhO, you can find many
more questions in the Estonian style here.
• Krotov, Problems in Physics. A collection of Russian Olympiad problems in typical style. It’s
like a shorter, refined version of Irodov’s classic Problems in General Physics. (For preparing
for the USAPhO or IPhO, I don’t recommend Irodov itself; it was one of the best books a few
generations ago, but compared to books available today, it has too many tedious filler problems
and not enough really deep ones. On the other hand, Irodov is incredibly popular in India.
That means that if you’re preparing for the Indian Physics Olympiad, you should absolutely
use it, because it’s a standard book, which means the test will assume you know it.)
• Levi, The Mathematical Mechanic. A fun book which gives slick solutions for many mechanics
and calculus problems.
• Povey, Professor Povey’s Perplexing Problems. A collection of simple but tricky undergraduate
admissions interview questions with neat historical anecdotes.
• Nahin’s In Praise of Simple Physics and Mrs. Perkins’s Electric Quilt provide a variety of
simple but entertaining examples, accompanied with historical anecdotes. Students of this
course will also probably enjoy his math-themed books How to Fall Slower Than Gravity and
Inside Interesting Integrals.
• Thomas and Raine, Physics to a Degree. A collection of well-motivated questions used for
undergraduate physics training, with many real-world applications.
• Cahn and Nadgorny, A Guide to Physics Problems. A thorough collection of graduate school
qualification exam problems. Many great classic problems were given on these exams, though
most problems in the book are too technical to be useful for Olympiad preparation.
• Cavendish Problems in Classical Physics. Another collection of classic problems, used for second
year exams in Cambridge back when things were more hardcore. Also see Thinking Like a
Physicist by Thompson, for more qualitative questions used in final year exams at Bristol.
• H.C. Verma, Concepts of Physics. This well-written book covers the material in Halliday,
Resnick, and Krane, with many worked examples and problems. It is commonly used to prepare
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Kevin Zhou 2020/2021 Physics Olympiad Training
for the Physics Olympiad in India. (However, I would strongly advise against using any source
used to cram for the IIT JEE, such as Pathfinder for Olympiad & JEE. The style of these books
is very different, and definitions and notation differ in confusing ways. Readers are expected to
memorize many formulas presented without explanation, some of which are don’t make sense.)
• You can also consult resources used by other countries’ physics teams. From easiest to hardest:
– Script Physics Olympiad , used by the Swiss physics team.
– Upgrade Your Physics, used by the British physics team.
– Physics Olympiad – Basic to Advanced Exercises, used by the Japanese physics team.
If you want to learn more advanced physics, see the third section of my second advice file for some
good books, which will be mentioned in the suggested readings. For specific fields, the following
books could also be useful.
• Agarwal and Lang, Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits. An accessible book
if you want to dig deeper into electrical engineering for E6.
• Hecht, Optics. A well-written, though occasionally long-winded reference for interference,
diffraction, and geometrical optics, useful for W2 and W3.
• Carroll and Ostlie, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics. A comprehensive book for under-
graduate astrophysics. It’s readable with Olympiad knowledge, and will be handy for X3.
• Lautrup, Physics of Continuous Matter. An excellent book on fluid and solid dynamics with
many interesting real-world examples. It uses vector and tensor calculus heavily, but could be
useful if you want to deepen your knowledge of M6.
• If you want to write your problem sets but have messy handwriting, see this advice. On the
other hand, if you want to type your problem sets but are slow at LATEX, play TEXnique.
5 Olympiad Problems
You can access most of the Olympiad problems we’ll do using the following links.
• Recent F = ma and USAPhO exams can be accessed here.
• As part of this training, you’ll also have access to older F = ma exams, quarterfinals, semifinals,
and their solutions.
• You can access past IPhO exams here and past APhO exams here.
• We’ll also draw problems from the EuPhO, GPhO, EFPhO/NBPhO, BAUPC, BPhO, JPhO,
AuPhO, CPhO, IZhO, INPhO, and PPRDPhO. (For some other Olympiads, see here.)
EFPhO/NBPhO problems will not be timed, but if you’d like to compare yourself against the
competitors, this competition allows about 8 minutes per point (in contrast to the 10 minutes per
point in international-level competitions). If you run into issues with math rendering in any of the
documents, try downloading a local copy and opening it with a dedicated PDF viewer.
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Kevin Zhou 2020/2021 Physics Olympiad Training
6 Curriculum
An outline of the full curriculum is shown below. In all cases, the relevant material in Halliday,
Resnick, and Krane is a prerequisite, and most problem sets require all of the previous ones in that
topic. Units that are most relevant to USAPhO preparation are underlined. Prior exposure to
vector calculus is useful, especially for thermodynamics and electromagnetism, but not necessary.
• 2 units of problem solving.
– P1: dimensional analysis, limiting cases, series expansions, differentials, iterative solutions.
– P2: probability, error analysis, data analysis, estimation, experimental technique.
• 8 units of mechanics.
– M1: kinematics. Solving F = ma, projectile motion, optimal launching. (P1 helpful)
– M2: statics. Force and torque balance, extended bodies, pressure and surface tension.
– M3: dynamics. Momentum, energy and center-of-mass energy, collisions.
– M4: oscillations. Damped/driven oscillators, normal modes, small oscillations, adiabaticity.
– M5: rotation. Angular kinematics, angular impulse, physical pendulums. (P2 helpful)
– M6: gravity. Kepler’s laws, rocket science, non-inertial frames, tides.
– M7: fluids. Buoyancy, Bernoulli’s principle, viscosity and surface tension. (M2 helpful)
– M8: synthesis. 3D rotation, precession, and tricky problems.
• 3 units of thermodynamics.
– T1: ideal gases, statistical mechanics, kinetic theory, the atmosphere. (M7 required)
– T2: laws of thermodynamics, quantum statistical mechanics, radiation, conduction.
– T3: surface tension, real fluids, phase transitions, compressible flow.
• 8 units of electromagnetism.
– E1: electrostatics. Coulomb’s law, Gauss’s law, potentials, conductors.
– E2: electricity. Images, capacitors, conduction, DC circuits.
– E3: magnetostatics. More circuits, Biot–Savart law, Ampere’s law, dipoles and solenoids.
– E4: Lorentz force. Dynamic charges, permanent magnets, solid state physics. (M4 helpful)
– E5: induction. Faraday’s law, inductors, dynamos, superconductors.
– E6: circuits. RLC circuits, filters, normal modes, diodes. (M4 required)
– E7: electrodynamics. More circuits, displacement current, radiation, field energy-momentum.
– E8: synthesis. Electromagnetic fields in matter, and tricky problems.
• 3 units of relativity.
– R1: kinematics. Lorentz transformations, Doppler effect, acceleration, classic paradoxes.
– R2: dynamics. Momentum, energy, four-vectors, forces, relativistic strings. (E4 helpful)
– R3: fields. Electromagnetic field transformations, the equivalence principle. (E7 required)
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Kevin Zhou 2020/2021 Physics Olympiad Training
• 3 units of waves.
– W1: wave equation, standing waves, music, interferometry. (M4 required)
– W2: interference and diffraction, crystallography, real world examples. (E7 required)
– W3: sound waves, water waves, polarization, geometrical optics. (M7 required)
• 3 units of modern physics.
– X1: semiclassical quantum mechanics, bosons and fermions. (M4, T2, W1 required)
– X2: nuclear, particle, and atomic physics. (R2 required)
– X3: condensed matter, astrophysics, and cosmology. (W3 helpful)
The core material relevant to the USAPhO consists of two weeks of problem solving, seven weeks
of mechanics, seven weeks of electromagnetism, and eight weeks of special topics, for a total of 24.
My recommended path through the curriculum is P1, P2, M1–4, E1–4, M5–7, T1–3, E5–7, R1,
R2, W1, W2, X1. (This ordering reflects the technical sophistication of the problems, and also
splits up the long topics so you don’t work on one for too long at a time.) There are six further
advanced units which are more relevant for IPhO preparation. Towards the end of the year, there
will be three review problem sets and eleven graded practice USAPhOs.
For USAPhO preparation, doing a fair amount of all 24 core problem sets is better than doing
a smaller number very thoroughly, because prior exposure to a wide range of ideas is useful when
encountering new questions. If you start in September, a good pace is one problem set per week; if
you start in mid-summer, a good pace is one problem set per 1.5 weeks.
Topics fluctuate significantly from year to year, but I would estimate that on average, a bit more
than half of the points on the USAPhO and IPhO are devoted to mechanics and electromagnetism,
with the rest roughly evenly divided between relativity, thermodynamics, waves, and modern physics.
Of these four special topics, thermodynamics and relativity tend to be a bit more common at the
USAPhO. At the IPhO, problems about specific advances in modern physics are common, though
many of the parts in such problems boil down to mechanics or electromagnetism.
