About Us
SPhL was a passion project started by a group of students who love physics – much like yourselves.
OUR STORY begins in 2019, when we were junior college students. As lovers of physics, we had always dreamt of what lay beyond the routine problems that we were trained to tackle in class. We wanted to use the concepts we learned in class and take them beyond the textbook – to explore and to experiment. And so the six of us took matters into our own hands, organizing informal problem-solving meetups over the weekend which we called "Physics Camps". We would set problems for one another that often sprang from the farthest reaches of our imagination. Playing around with physics in this way ended up forming an integral part of our school experience.
Fig. 1: During our "Physics Camps", we had lots of fun discussing cool (and silly) physics problems.
Fig. 2: Our annual tradition of competing in Physics Brawl from (a) Jewel Changi Airport, (b) Changi Airport Terminal 4.
ONLINE PHYSICS BRAWL is an international team physics competition organized in Czechia. We signed up for it without knowing what to expect and simply wanted to have some fun. Owing to the time zone difference, the competition took place at the ridiculous timing of 12 AM - 3 AM, leading us to the equally ridiculous decision to spend the night at Changi Airport and compete from there. Despite the acute sleep deprivation and copious amounts of caffeine in our veins, we found the experience tremendously enjoyable - filled with wonder through the innovative physics being showcased, joy through the lively discussions we had, and adrenaline through the intensity of the competition.
This culminated in a crazy idea – what if Singapore also had a team-based physics competition? (albeit taking place not in the dead of the night)
THIS BECAME OUR MISSION. We wanted to share with Singapore's physics students the unique joy of collaborative learning that we had enjoyed all these years. We wanted to inspire interest in physics through novel and interesting problems, much like those we had set for each other in our "Physics Camps". Most of all, we wanted students to enjoy the process of thinking about and talking about challenging physics puzzles. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic convinced us that there was no more germane time to roll out such an online competition.
Fig. 3: SPhL is our way to spread the beauty of physics and the joy of collaboration from our generation to yours.
Fig. 4: Organising SPhL is an exciting and dynamic process that blends a wide variety of interconnected tasks.
WE BUILT THE COMPETITION FROM SCRATCH. Over several months, we planned every detail of the competition - from the setting and reviewing of the problems, to the development of the platform, even down to the nitty-gritty of the competition rules. On 12 June 2021, we launched the very first edition of SPhL. Little did we know that it would be the first of many. We were heartened by the unexpectedly large turnout and the enthusiastic reception of the competition from students and staff alike. It is this support from the community that has transformed SPhL into the celebrated annual competition it is today.
A competition made by the youth, for the youth.
TODAY, SPhL IS 5 YEARS OLD. Since its inception, it has built an evergreen ecosystem where organisers and contestants come together annually to revel in the joy of collaborative physics. Every year, selected contestants from the previous edition of SPhL join the Organising Team. Despite being young pre-university students, they have a hand in every part of the competition, bringing with them exciting and innovative ideas, renewing and reinvigorating the competition for yet another edition.
REACHING BEYOND PHYSICS, SPhL has even inspired a number of similar competitions in other fields: the Singapore Chemistry League (SChL), and the Singapore Biology League (SBL). But perhaps the most crucial and unquantifiable part of SPhL’s legacy is its creation of a culture of students working together to solve thought-provoking problems – just like we did in our school days.
Born from the shared passion of students who dared to dream beyond the classroom, SPhL is a testament to the power of collaboration, and it thrives because of the youths who shape it year after year.

If you would like to take part in this journey and empower the next generation of physics enthusiasts, we invite you to join the Organising Team and help write the next chapter of SPhL’s story.

— Christopher, Brian, Shaun, Galen, Shuhao, Zeyuan
The Founders of SPhL