About
Physics is taught as equations. It behaves like motion.
You can pass an exam on orbital mechanics without ever watching an orbit decay. You can derive Navier-Stokes and never see smoke curl. The maths is not the hard part. The gap between the symbol and the thing is.
YPAE closes it by making people build the thing. Not read about it, not watch a lecture on it. Write a simulation, run it, and watch it get the physics wrong until it does not.
The events are competitions because deadlines finish projects that curiosity starts.
How it started
A black hole simulation, written in Python, posted online. Enough people asked how it was made that answering individually stopped being possible.
The first event ran in July 2026. Over 140 people registered, most with no programming background at all. 82 of them shipped a finished, working simulation inside seven days. Every one is in the gallery, open source, credited.
The format has not changed since, because it worked. What changes each time is the physics.
Common questions
›Do I need to know how to code?
No. Most people who finished the first event had never written a line of Python. You are taught the workflow in the live session, and the AI writes most of the code. What you bring is the physics intuition and the taste.
›What do I actually need installed?
Python, Git, and an AI-assisted editor. About fifteen minutes of setup, walked through step by step before the session starts.
›How much time does it take?
One hour live, then a week of your own pace. Plenty of finished entries were built across two or three evenings.
›What happens to my code?
It stays yours. It goes in your own public repository under your own account. We display it in the gallery with your name on it, and you can ask us to take it down whenever you like.
›Is this only for students?
No, but that is who mostly turns up. The first event ran from middle school to university, with a few people well past that.
›What if my simulation is bad?
Everyone who submits gets written feedback on the physics, which for most people is the actual value. Placement is a side effect.
Who runs it
Built and taught by Armaan, an engineering student who got into this by making the black hole simulation that started it. Questions go to the contact page.