In the past two years, the international Olympiads took place online. To offer the possibility of personal exchange, the Physics Olympiad organised a weekend in Winterthur for the Swiss contestants of these international events.
Group picture in front of the nail factory. Picture: Nicolà Gantenbein
Nail machines. Picture: Nicolà Gantenbein
Tour through Nagli. Picture: Nicolà Gantenbein
The re-purposed factory hall in the Sulzareal. Picture: Nicolà Gantenbein
During the cosy dinner. Picture: Nicolà Gantenbein
In the AdventureRooms Technorama - who got lost on the way? Picture: Nicolà Gantenbein
On Saturday, the event started: After a delicious lunch we had a guided tour in the Nagli (Swiss Nail Factory). From manual forging and old nail machines to modern technology – we experienced how diverse wire coils are cut, hammered, and polished into nails of different forms and size.
Before dinner, a group of us strolled through the Sulzerareal, a formal industrial quarter in which the hostel was situated. We discovered a factory hall which was re-purposed to a parking area and big rusty hooks of tackles of different size. During the following dinner, there was time for exchange and logical puzzles.
On Sunday, we visited the Technorama. Be it perfecting “Alli mini Äntli” on a ball path, be it trying a thermographic camera – all of us had fun. Additionally, a special adventure awaited us: Gabriel Palacios, a former president of the Physics Olympiad and inventor of the Adventure Rooms, invited us to play. All four groups puzzled, and all of them escaped in the given time.