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Explorer Competition

What is it?

Every year, hundreds of high school-level students from around the globe form teams and compete by responding to an open-ended research-based assignment containing questions inspired by groundbreaking discoveries in physics, and submit their work after a two week-long period in the form of a report. This event is called the Physics Unlimited Explorer Competition.

The 2021 Explorer Competition took place in February/March. Beginning with the 2022 edition the event takes place in April. Explorer 2023 took place April 1(2) - 18, and the assignment can be viewed here.


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The 2020 Explorer Competition consisted of a single assignment on orbital resonance. Please see this page to view the details and results.
The 2018 Explorer Competition consisted of a two-part assignment, with one section on quantum mechanics and one section on statistical mechanics. Please see this page to view the assignment details and results.
Physics Unlimited's inaugural team-based Explorer Competition took place in November/December 2017.
Please see this archived page to view the assignments and results from that event.