IYPT 1993, Задачи на турнира — Задача 1. Think up a problem yourself

Note [3]

The Russian traditional title «Придумай сам» has been internationally translated as “Think up a problem yourself” at 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” appeared also in the Soviet OC’s translation for the 4th IYPT. 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 [4]

The Hungarian version adds here a phrase “Formulate all additional details on your own”

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

[1] Printed schedule, diplomas preserved by Wei Ji Ma together with the problems [Whee Ky Ma 1993]

[2] The problems for the 6th IYPT were most likely originally written and distributed to most participants in Russian language, the basic working language at the entire event (non-Russian speaking teams were assisted by interpreters [Morozov 2008], [Wei Ji Ma 2008].)

As of May 2011, this original Russian archetype text has not been yet found.

An English translation, titled Problems for the VI International Young Physicists’ Tournament, seems to have been first published in Czech journal Rozhledy mat.-fyz. in late 1992 [RMF 1992]. The source document and the author of translation are not reported, while the translation is made most expectedly from the Russian. This translation was provided at least to the team of the Netherlands [Whee Ky Ma 1993].

Texts those acquired and preserved by Wei Ji Ma and those published in Rozhledy mat.-fyz. are fully identical.

The known Slovak translation claims to rely on the text published in Rozhledy mat.-fyz. in 1992 [TMF 1996], providing a direct reference to that source.

The set of 17 problems in Czech language titled Problems for International Young Physicists’ Tournament. 6. Russia ― Protvino ― 1993 (Úlohy mezinádodního turnaje mladých fyziků. 5. Rusko ― Protvino ― 1993) was published by Zdeněk Kluiber in review book Turnaj Mladých Fyziků in 1996 [Kluiber 1996].

A three-page typeset Dutch translation [Jordens 1993] was presumably performed from either English either Russian texts, and was circulating within the Dutch community.

A fully 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 1996 Czech text because all notable distinctive details of the Czech text are reproduced in the 2006 English text, Zdeněk Kluiber is directly acknowledged by Silvina Simeonova as the source, and many linguistic nuances are similar in both versions.

The Hungarian version [Rajkovits 2003], of uncertain background, but plausibly translated from the Russian, remains available.

Nothing on the 6th IYPT has been published in the Kvant magazine and on the Evgeny Yunosov's Faraday Tournament website (2002.)

The current edition reproduces the contemporaneous English translation [RMF 1992], [Whee Ky Ma 1993] with the most notable discrepancies against Slovak [TMF 1996], Hungarian [Rajkovits 2003], 1996 Czech [Kluiber 1996], 2006 English [Proceedings 2006], and Dutch [Jordens 1993] translations being discussed.

Although the English translation might have been recognized by LOC as official, it is now felt appropriate to make a few minimum editorial changes to the text, for the following reason: a limited number of teams was using the English text before and during the 5th IYPT, and the version thus had a limited social impact as of a “standard English edition”. The current edition, however, follows the early English text as closely as possible, with every discrepancy against other translations being commented. An early draft, how retracted, of the translation has been performed in July 2008 mainly from the Slovak text.

This edition does not include possible Problems for Captains, or Problems for Observers, that might have been proposed at certain stages of the 6th IYPT for rapid, immediate solution. There is currently little to no information

about such problems at the 6th IYPT, while their existence is plausible. The challenge procedure across the “standard” 17 problems is virtually confirmed [Morozov 2008].

A deeper insight and possible corrections will be possible when the archetype Russian text is 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); 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

Sources

[RMF 1992] Problems for the VI International Young Physicists’ Tournament. Rozhledy matematicko-fyzikální, ročník 70, č. 5―6, 1992, s. 266―268

[Whee Ky Ma 1993] Problems for the VI International Young Physicists’ Tournament, a four- page typeset English translation of the problems, printed with a dot matrix printer, provided by LOC to Dutch participant Whee Ky Ma (Wei Ji Ma) in 1993

[TMF 1996] VI. medzinádodný TMF ( 1992 ― 1993 ) // Juraj Braciník, Jozef Brestenský, Miroslav Helbich, Karol Macák. Turnaj mladých fyzikov : štatút a úlohy. Iuventa, Bratislava (1996), s. 31―32

[Jordens 1993] De opgaven van het toernooi, a three-page typeset Dutch translation of the problems, circulating among Dutch participants in 1993

[Morozov 2008] Private communication with Alexander Morozov, Ukrainian participant in 1993

[Wei Ji Ma 2008] Private communication with Wei Ji Ma, Dutch participant in 1993

[Kluiber 1996] Úlohy mezinádodního turnaje mladých fyziků. 6. Rusko ― Moskva ― 1993 // Zdeněk Kluiber. Turnaj Mladých Fyziků. Informace o nádodní i mezinádodní soutěži studentů výrazně talentovaných pro fyziku. Gaudeamus-MAFI, Hradec Králové, 1996, s. 28―30

[Proceedings 2006] Problems for the 6th IYPT. In: Proceedings of the 19th IYPT 2006 (eds Silvina Simeonova, Myeung Hoi Kwon, Zvezdi, Sofia 2007), pp. 242‒243

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

Edition credits

Edited and commented by Ilya Martchenko. Originally translated from Slovak and Hungarian in July 2008, the authoritative English translation found, shared by Wei Ji Ma in November 2008, an independent copy of translation kindly shared by Jaroslav Zhouf in October 2009, 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, Wei Ji Ma, Jaroslav Zhouf, Jozef Brestenský, Zsuzsanna Rajkovits, Martin Plesch and others, without important factual details on the 6th IYPT provided by Wei Ji Ma, Alexander Morozov and Yaroslav Chinskiy, 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 1993 English text names them: S. Varlamov, H. Kissinger, T. Korneeva, E. Pikersgill, E. Surkov, E. Yunosov, and A. Yarov. The presence of Henry Kissinger among the problem authors was revealed by Zdeněk Kluiber and Ivan Štoll to be a joke of the Organizing Committee linked to the problem No. 8 (Henry Kissinger had promoted the concept of domino effect in international relations.) It is so far unclear if E. Pikersgill was a genuine problem author or, plausibly, Mr. Pikersgill, a character in James Herriot's All Things Bright and Beautiful who was proud of having attended a two-week scientific workshop when a teenager.

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