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Skateboard Physics
Einstein's writings on the relationship between gravity and acceleration are well known to physicists. To honor Einstein's groundbreaking work in this field, the judges challenged finalists to consider the forces of gravity and acceleration experienced by skateboarders and bikers on a half-pipe ramp.
With high-speed digital cameras, computers, and technicians at their disposal, finalists predicted the g-forces at given points on a skater's or biker's line of travel path and then fabricated an accelerometer device to verify their predictions. Judges evaluated the processes finalists used to make predictions, how data and images were gathered, and how teams arrived at their final conclusions.
