Rye Country Day was represented well in two of the 2025 American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) competitions. Both the U.S. Physics Team Program and PhysicsBowl are designed to promote and demonstrate academic excellence in physics.
Ten Upper School students participated in the first round of the U.S. Physics Team Program by sitting for the F=ma exam. The 75-minute exam focused on mechanics, including kinematics, statics, Newton’s laws, momentum and energy, oscillations, orbital mechanics, rotational dynamics, fluids, dimensional analysis, and elementary data analysis.
F=ma Exam Participants:
- Chaaranath Badrinath ’26
- Alyssa Chu ’25
- Helen Halvorson ’26
- Charles Iwanski ’26
- Jason Ren ’26
- Steven Ren ’26
- Shawn Wei ’26
- James Wolff ’27
- Cooper Wu ’26
- Melody Wu ’28
Based on the results from the F=ma exam, 400 high school students were invited to participate in the second round of competition by taking the USA Physics Team (USAPhO) exam, including Alyssa Chu ’25 and Melody Wu ’28. Through a 3-hour free response exam structure, the students must demonstrate their mastery of all topics in introductory physics, including mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, relativity, nuclear, atomic, and particle physics, waves, optics, and data analysis. Melody elected to sit for the USAPhO exam, and she was recognized on the 2025 USAPhO Honors and Distinction List, with a Distinction for Commendable Performance.
For the 2025 PhysicsBowl Contest, nine RCDS students competed in the international high school team competition. Students were divided into Division 1 (first-year physics students) and Division 2 (second-year and beyond physics students) and competed with other schools within one of 15 designated regions. The top five individual student scores are added together to give the team score, and the RCDS Division 2 students placed third in their region (New York and Rhode Island schools).
Physics Bowl Participants:
- Chaaranath Badrinath ’26 (Division 2)
- Alyssa Chu ’25 (Division 2)
- Tyler Hatstadt ’26 (Division 2)
- Helen Halvorson ’26 (Division 1)
- Xindi Liu ’26 (Division 2)
- Jason Ren ’26 (Division 2)
- Shawn Wei ’26 (Division 2)
- James Wolff ’27 (Division 1)
- Melody Wu ’28 (Division 1)
Congratulations, Wildcats!
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