Blair wins awards at physics competition

Seven Blair teams won awards at the Montgomery County Final Frontiers competition, hosted by the Maryland Space Business Roundtable at Thomas S. Wootton High School on Nov. 12.

Three teams won first place awards in the "Newton's Nightmare" event, which consisted of taking a test with multiple physics problems, at the grade nine "Physics First," grades 10-12 "Physics I" and grades 9-12 "Physics II" levels. The "Physics First" team won by default but gained special recognition for scoring higher than 90 percent of the teams taking the test.

A group of seniors won third place in the tournament-style "Mass Driver" event in which teams designed a device that projected three pieces of clay with the greatest accuracy toward three targets, while competing against another group and their device.

A freshman group won second place in the eighth and ninth grade "Lunar Bridge" event where teams designed the lightest bridge possible that held a brick and spanned two supports stationed half a meter apart.

Another freshman team also won second place for the "Slow Roller" event where groups made a device that rolled down an inclined meter stick in the longest time possible, while still moving.

Blair won first place in the final "Mystery Event," in which all of the school's members were allowed to participate in making a paper airplane that flew forward four feet, took a right turn, and went the farthest possible distance down a hall.