Weizmann Safecracking The Competition
Mr AndrewWheble
E arly one morning in March, six Remove physicists, two teachers and a very carefully bubble-wrapped Physics safe left the North gravel en route to the Weizmann Institute, near Tel Aviv in Israel. Our purpose: to compete in the 19th annual Shalhevet Freier International Physics competition, otherwise known as the Weizmann safecracking competition. In this competition the participants bring a ‘safe’ that they have built and tested using their knowledge of Physics principles. The teams gain points by trying to crack each other’s safes, while hoping that their own creation stumps their competitors. Each team is also quizzed by an expert panel of judges about the science behind their safe, with the judges awarding points for good knowledge, invention and aesthetics. Our team won its place in this competition by finishing second in the UK round, held early this year. The first hurdle was to arrive safely in Israel with all our team and the safe intact. This was not just a formality, given the multiple nationalities of passports and the rather bomb-like appearance of our safe, which contained a microprocessor, numerous electrical components, a lot of wiring and a laser. Needless to say the Israeli security personnel had many questions, but with their curiosity satisfied we were soon on our way. Having arrived at the Weizmann Institute very late, we waited until the morning to open the safe and see if it had come out unscathed. With bated breath we removed the bubble wrap to find
everything as it was intended – except for a large crack across the door. Thirty minutes and a glue gun later, the problem was fixed and everything was ready for the tournament. This allowed us to enjoy the rest of the day, during which we were treated to a tour of the institute and taken for a very interactive tour around the Clore Garden of Science, which featured many exciting demonstrations from our guide. We were lucky to be able to use the free time in the evening to explore a little of Tel Aviv. Tuesday was competition day, and saw the arrival of the 40 Israeli teams to complement the nine international teams. The safes came in a wide range of shapes and sizes, and you could sense that everyone was eager to get cracking, so to speak. After the all-important inspection and interviewing by the judges was complete, the most exciting part of the competition began, as the teams took turns to attempt to crack each other’s safes. Dulwich performed well but came up against some tricky, and in one case shockingly dangerous, safes and out of the seven that were attempted the points went our way on three occasions. Of the eight teams that faced our safe, only one was successful “The first hurdle was to arrive safely in Israel with all our team and the safe intact.”
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