IYPT 1991, Задачи на турнира — Задача 1. Invent yourself

Note [4]

The Russian traditional title «Придумай сам» has been internationally translated as “Think up a problem yourself” at the 6th IYPT, the 7th IYPT and the 8th IYPT, but later most commonly as “Invent yourself” (at the 9th IYPT, the 10th IYPT and the 11th IYPT.) “Invent yourself” is used in the Soviet OC’s translation for 1991 [Jordens 1991]. Other versions are: “Invent for yourself” (13th IYPT), “Your invention” (Soviet OC’s translation for the 3rd IYPT), “Think for yourselves” (Soviet OC’s translation of the Kvant text for 1989), “Invent it yourself” (1992 translations for the 5th IYPT)

Note [5]

“Observations”, in the Slovak text

Notes [1]–[2] — critical edition and text history

[1] The report [Skrapits 1992] provides the dates of July 22-28, 1991, while [Stoliaroff CR 1991] provides the dates of July 23-28, 1991. Both reports were published after the event, and probably the official schedule read July 22-28, although the opening ceremony was confirmed to be held on July 23 [Stoliaroff CR 1991]

[2] The original problems for the 4th IYPT were prepared and distributed to participants in Russian language, the primary working language at the entire event (non-Russian speaking teams were assisted by interpreters.)

The primary “standard” source for this translation is the typeset Russian text of the problems for the Correspondence Collective Competition (Заочный коллективный конкурс) provided by LOC to Russian participant Sergey Romanchuk and shared in October 2010 [Romanchuk 1991].

An English translation has been prepared by the Organizing Committee and distributed to non-Russian speaking teams, at least the Dutch team. A two-page typeset OCR document titled The problems of the IVth Inernational Young Physicists’ Tournament coming from Evgeny Yunosov was preserved by Hans Jordens [Jordens 1991]. The language and style of this translated document may be considered quite rough, with some examples reading: “Estimate, please, velocity of such ship” or “In this way measure, please, exact values of exposures for your camera and its shuttes speed.”

A French translation titled Problems for the IVth International Young Physicists’ Tournament (1990-91) (Problèmes du IVe tournoi international des jeunes physiciens (1990-91)) has been published by Jeanne Stoliaroff in Bull. Union Phys. in June 1991, shortly before the event [Stoliaroff 1991]. The source document is not reported, while the editorial board of the journal might have contributed to the translation, giving a special footnote (note de la rédaction) implying that they had a non-French version available. Some further linguistic details show that the French translation may not be considered a translation from the 1991 English text and, thus, is most likely translated directly from the Russian.

A Czech translation for the problems with no explicit title has been published in Ivan Štoll’s article IV. Ročník Turnaje mladých fyziků in Rozhledy mat.-fyz. presumably in March-April 1992, 8 or 9 months after the competition [RMF 1992]. The source document is not reported, while the translation is made most probably from the Russian. It may be speculated, with no solid grounds, that the editorial board of the journal might have contributed to the translation.

The Slovak translation relies on the Rozhledy mat.-fyz. Czech text [TMF 1996], providing a direct reference to that source. There is as well all linguistic evidence that the Slovak text follows the 1992 Czech text and may not be considered a translation from the 1996 Czech text, or vice versa. The Slovak is linguistically very close to Czech and, to a lesser extent, Russian.

The list of 17 problems in Czech language titled Problems for International Young Physicists’ Tournament. 4. Russia ― Moscow ― 1991 (Úlohy mezinádodního turnaje mladých fyziků. 4. Rusko ― Moskva ― 1991) was published by Zdeněk Kluiber in review book Turnaj Mladých Fyziků in 1996 [Kluiber 1996]. This Czech translation is found to be fully independent from the 1992 version, with very different style, wording and factual nuances.

A different English version was published in 2006 by Silvina Simeonova in the Proceedings of the 16th IYPT on the basis of a text provided to the publishers by Zdeněk Kluiber [Proceedings 2006]. The year of translation and the source language are not reported. This version, however, is almost certainly translated from the Czech text because almost all notable distinctive details of the Czech text are reproduced in the 2006 English text.

The Hungarian version [Rajkovits 2003] is available as well.

Nothing on the 4th IYPT has been published in the Kvant magazine and on the Evgeny Yunosov's Faraday Tournament website (2002).

All available sources have certain mutual discrepancies in word order, in details and in style. No problems, however, are replaced with entirely different ones, which is the case with the problems for the 5th IYPT or the 2nd IYPT. There is detailed evidence from participants of the competition [Falus Fedorcsák 2009] that these very problems were discussed at the real stages of the 4th IYPT in July 1991.

The current document relies on the 1991 Russian text as the “standard” edition, and comments on all discrepancies against the 1991 English, French, 1992 Czech, 1996 Czech, Slovak, 2006 English, and Hungarian translations. The early draft of this translation has been performed in August 2008 from the Slovak and the Hungarian texts, revisions were made in January 2011 after the Russian archetype edition was found.

The history of text transmission: colors indicate the languages of the sources (black for the Russian, red for the Czech, blue for the Slovak, green for the English, pink for the Hungarian, brown for the French); dotted lines indicate that notable factual inaccuracies were introduced with translation or copying; the tick indicates the version taken as “standard” for the current edition

Note [3]

The epigraph for the set of problems appears in the Russian, the French, the Slovak, in the 1996 Czech, and in the 2006 English text, while is omitted in other versions

Sources

[Romanchuk 1991] Турнир юных физиков: заочный коллективный конкурс. Russian text of the problems, from a handout provided by LOC to Russian participant Sergey Romanchuk in 1991

[RMF 1992] Ivan Štoll. IV. Ročník Turnaje mladých fyziků. Rozhledy matematicko-fyzikální, ročník 70, č. 1 (březen-duben 1992), 1992, s. 44―46

[TMF 1996] IV. medzinádodný TMF ( 1990 ― 1991 ) // Juraj Braciník, Jozef Brestenský, Miroslav Helbich, Karol Macák. Turnaj mladých fyzikov : štatút a úlohy. Iuventa, Bratislava (1996) ISBN 80-85172-77-1, s. 29―30

[Rajkovits 2003] Zs. Rajkovits, L. Skrapits, P. Kenesei. Ifjú Fizikusok Nemzetközi Versenye: problémái (1989—2003). Retrieved at http://metal.elte.hu/~dlab/ifnv.doc

[Kluiber 1996] Úlohy mezinádodního turnaje mladých fyziků. 4. Rusko ― Moskva ― 1991 // Zdeněk Kluiber. Turnaj Mladých Fyziků. Informace o nádodní i mezinádodní soutěži studentů výrazně talentovaných pro fyziku. Gaudeamus-MAFI, Hradec Králové, 1996, s. 26―27

[Proceedings 2006] Problems for the 4th IYPT. In: Proceedings of the 19th IYPT 2006 (eds Silvina Simeonova, Myeung Hoi Kwon, Zvezdi, Sofia 2007), pp. 238‒239

[Stoliaroff 1991] [Jeanne Stoliaroff]. Quatrième tournoi international des jeunes physiciens. Bull. Union Phys. 85, No. 735, 1009-1011 (Juin 1991)

[Stoliaroff CR 1991] Jeanne Stoliaroff. Compte-rendu du tournoi international des jeunes physiciens à Moscou. Bull. Union Phys. 85, No. 738, 1493-1497 (Novembre 1991)

[Skrapits 1992] Lajos Skrapits. Ifjú Fizikusok Nemzetközi Versenye. Fizikai Szemle, 1992/03, 119.o. (március 1992)

[Jordens 1991] The problems of the IVth International Young Physicists’ Tournament, an English translation of the problems provided by LOC to Hans Jordens in 1991, OCR

[Falus Fedorcsák 2009] Private communication with Péter Falus and Péter Fedorcsák, Hungarian participants in 1991

[Romanchuk Salov 2010] Private communication with Sergey Romanchuk and Dmitri Salov, Russian participants in 1991

Edition credits

Translated, edited and commented by Ilya Martchenko. Originally translated in August 2008, revisions made until May 2011. This edition would never have been prepared without the early work in copying, translating, publishing and preserving problems, made in different years by Evgeny Yunosov, Sergey Romanchuk, Ivan Štoll, Jozef Brestenský, Zsuzsanna Rajkovits, Hans Jordens, Jaroslav Zhouf, Martin Plesch and others, without without important factual details on the 4th IYPT provided by Péter Falus and Péter Fedorcsák, without proofreading and valuable suggestions made by Matej Ftáčnik, Tymofii Nikolaienko, Timotheus Hell, and Dahl Winters.

Authors of the IYPT problems were often reported in late 1980s and early 1990s. The 1991 English text names them: A. Chomenko, T. Korneeva, A. Korotkov, A. Shapiro, S. Varlamov, E. Yunosov.

Everyone who may shed more light on early IYPTs is kindly invited to contribute.