LASTEST UPDATE ▪️ COMPETITION INFORMATION
The U.S. Physics Team won 5 Gold medals at the 2024 EuPhO in Kutaisi, Georgia
F=ma Exam
The F=ma Competition is an annual physics competition for high school students in the United States. It is sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers and is designed to test students' knowledge of classical mechanics.
Interested in the competition?
Competition Overview
11-19 years old currently located in the US
Eligibility
$75 per school and $15 per student
Entry Fee
January 27, 2025
Submission Deadline
February 12, 2025
Test Date
📌 Note: Aralia is not the organizer of this competition. For official rules, deadlines, and updates, please refer directly to the competition organizer. Aralia provides listings and information about competitions for student reference. Aralia is an online education platform offering competition preparation classes to students worldwide.
Competition Details
1. Introduction
The F=ma Competition is an annual physics competition for high school students in the United States. It is sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers and is designed to test students’ knowledge of classical mechanics. Participants are given multiple-choice questions covering kinematics, forces, energy, and momentum. The top performers in the competition are recognized with awards and prizes.
The F=ma exam is a 75-minute exam with 25 multiple-choice questions focusing on mechanics, including kinematics, statics, Newton’s laws, momentum and energy, oscillations, orbital mechanics, rotational dynamics, fluids, dimensional analysis, and elementary data analysis.
2. Eligibility
Middle and high school students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents or currently attending a U.S. school. Students must be located in the US to take the F=ma exam.
For the USAPhO exam, students must be either U.S. citizens, or legal permanent residents of the United States (green card holders), and are currently located in the US to take the exam.
3. Competition Timeline
- January 27, 2025 – F=ma Registration Deadline
- February 12, 2025, 2pm to 6pm local time – F=ma Exam
- Early April 2025 – USAPhO Exam
- May 27 to June 7, 2025 – U.S. Physics Team Training Camp, University of Maryland
- July 17 – 25, 2025 – 55th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), Paris, France
4. Competition Progress
After students take the F=ma exam, 400 students will be invited to take the USA Physics Team (USAPhO) exam (please note that international students can’t take this exam). Then, 20 students who performed well in the USAPhO and F=ma exams will be invited to be a part of the U.S. Physics Team. For 2024, the F=ma cut-off score is 14 points. This year, there were 500 students who scored 14 points and above.
