Running rings around the competition

PHIL REID/The Dominion Post

LORD OF THE RINGS: Former Onslow College student Stanley Roache has won two major prizes for explaining how light is reflected inside a metal tube.

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Rising physics star Stanley Roache had his $57,000 eureka moment just hours before he had to present his findings at an international physics tournament.

The 18-year-old former Onslow College student was this week announced as the winner of the inaugural $50,000 Prime Minister's Future Scientist Prize and the $7000 Royal Society 'Realise the Dream' competition.

"It feels great, it still feels kind of surreal," he said yesterday.

Both prizes were for his explanations of why we see rings when we look down a metal tube with a shiny inside. His findings, which may be a world first, could lead to advances in medical imaging and the speed of fibre optic cables.

Describing the rings was his challenge for the International Young Physicists Tournament in Tianjin, China last July.

The day before the tournament final he had a eureka moment when he realised he had done his calculations based on an incorrect idea of how eyes work. With the correct understanding – to do with treating the eye lens as an area rather than a single point – he was able to reach a better solution.

His former Onslow College physics teacher, Kent Hogan, believed it was a "completely new" explanation of the rings.

Back in New Zealand, Stanley did further work on his discovery and entered it in the `Realise the Dream' competition, for which he won the supreme award in a unanimous vote by judges. They said his project demonstrated a "perceptive and scientifically disciplined mind with tremendous potential".

Unbeknown to him, all winners from that competition were entered in the inaugural Prime Minister's Science Prizes. He found out about both wins this week.

His $50,000 prize is for tertiary study, with the $7000 cash prize accompanied by an all-expenses paid trip to this year's London International Youth Science Forum.

He is now doing a bachelor of science in physics and mathematics at the University of Auckland.

Otago University physics department head Robert Ballagh was not familiar with the effect so was unaware if it had been explained before. "What I can say is that it's a very clever solution to the problem."

Eye Spy

Why do we see a series of rings and bands when we look down a metal tube?As light enters the tube on an angle it bounces up and down along the tube until reaching the eye. At each point the light bounces, a ring appears. What are the practical uses of this discovery?Getting better and more accurate pictures in areas like medical imaging inside bodies. An analogue adaptation of fibre optics. If more information could be passed through the tube with other variables such as angle of entry, bandwidth could be increased.

- © Fairfax NZ News