PUPILS took part in a series of fascinating appliance-of-science challenges in the Physics Olympics.

The annual contest at Bolton School tasked youngsters with competing in events such as firing rockets and and building boats.

Taking part in the contest were 17 schools from across the north of England, including Bolton School and Ladybridge High.

Teams of four — each named after a famous physicist — had just 30 minutes to complete each challenge.

In "bullseye", probably the most exciting challenge of the day, year 9 pupils had to build a paper rocket to fire along a school corridor using air pressure.

Pupils had to design the best aerodynamic shape and were scored not only on distance, but on their ability to fire the rocket through a hoop and land it on a target.

They also had to build towers from spaghetti and Jelly Babies, with the winner being the team with the tallest tower that could also hold an egg for 10 seconds.

In another construction challenge, youngsters had to build a boat capable of floating in a tub of water, using only two pieces of card, two plastic wallets and sellotape.

The winners were the builders of the boat that could hold the most marbles.

Another event asked pupils to find the combined mass of three knitted dolls using only a stand, a spring, a stop-clock and a set of 100g weights.

And in another fun challenge, pupils had to build a marble ramp with limited materials —the prize going to the team that could delay a marble's passage along the ramp for the longest time.

The youngsters also took part in a quiz, and sixth formers, who helped administer and adjudicate the challenges, had to complete presentations on the theory behind them.

A Bolton school spokesman said: "The exciting challenges are designed to stretch and test their knowledge of physics.

"The activities were wide-ranging and allowed pupils to showcase all of their skills in the subject.

"However, with just thirty minutes on the clock for each challenge and many of them limited to a certain number of attempts, there was a definite competitive atmosphere throughout the day."

The competition was won by Kirkham Grammar School, while Ladybridge High came second and Bolton School Boys' Division took third place.