A group of physicists from the Institute of Physics in Belgrade and the Faculty of Physics of the University of Belgrade have launched the ‘Monthly Physics Challenge’ initiative. Conceived as a series of engaging tasks for students interested in physics, the challenge aims to inspire and motivate young people to devote themselves to this science in their further education.
Every month, a new task is published on the website mpc.ipb.ac.rs for high-school students passionate about physics, as well as students of physics and related fields up to the age of 20.
Young people who manage to solve the task are invited to send their clearly written and explained solutions in a single PDF document to the email address mpc@ipb.ac.rs, no later than the first day of the following month (for example, the September challenge may be solved until October 1). In their email, participants should state their full name and surname, date of birth, as well as the name and location of their school or faculty/university. Depending on the month and year, the subject of the email should indicate the month and year of the challenge, e.g. IPB MPC 09 2025.
Students who successfully complete the task can look forward to a surprise!
Some of the goals of this unusual and simple challenge are to connect the Institute and Faculty with students, to identify exceptionally talented students in physics, to foster strong ties with schools and physics teachers, to promote physics and physics students, and to increase the number of physics students, thus contributing tothe ‘brain drain’ struggle.
This month’s challenge was conceived by four physicists from the Institute of Physics Belgrade and the Faculty of Physics of the University of Belgrade – Nenad Vukmirović, Dejan M. Đokić, Marko Opačić and Dušan Đorđević. All four authors have extensive experience in teaching and research, as well as in working with high-school and university students and preparing them for national and international physics competitions.
Download the September 2025 challenge task
We invite all students and their teachers to take part in the challenge — and wish you the best of luck!