Avatar

Daniele Battesimo Provenzano

About

   Hello, I am Danny. I am about to complete my Ph.D. in Physics at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, where I conduct theoretical research on plasmonics and anisotropic metamaterials. In parallel, I work as a Police Inspector in the forensic department of the Italian Police in Rome, specializing in GSR analysis. However, my true passions are teaching and physics education, which blossomed during my undergraduate years. Since then, I have taught a variety of courses for talented high school students across Italy preparing for physics competitions, as well as for first-year university students in Pisa. Moreover, I recently began writing educational materials and peer-reviewed articles that clarify complex concepts, challenge misconceptions, and debunk persistent myths often found in traditional sources. In the same vein, I am currently authoring a textbook on problem-solving techniques aimed at talented high schoolers and undergraduate physics majors, scheduled for publication in 2027. Ultimately, I wish to dedicate my life to physics education.

   If you want to know more about my background and past experiences, here is my CV. If you would like to get in touch, you can reach me at daniele.provenzano@sns.it or via carrier pigeon.

Interests

   Since my master’s studies, I have been particularly interested in macroscopic electrodynamics, with a focus on the propagation of electromagnetic waves in anisotropic media. At the same time, having remained closely connected to the Physics Olympiad community—which I took part in during high school—I began teaching in three schools for gifted students, coaching them for national and international competitions (IPhO and EuPhO). Over six years of teaching, and through my involvement as a member of the organizing committees of both the Italian Physics Olympiad and the Team Physics Competition, I developed a strong passion for designing original educational materials. The need to create unique problems for competitions and exams eventually led several of them to evolve into the foundations of scientific articles.

   Currently, in addition to my Ph.D. research, I am working on some projects in two fields that I particularly love: celestial mechanics and fluid dynamics. As for the latter, you can check this paper about daflating soap bubbles. It served as the theoretical basis for the final experimental examination of the 2025 Italian Physics Olympiad.

   The other works in fluid dynamics focus on debunking fake perpetual motion machines such as this one, on quantitatively describing how a Heron’s Fountain works, and on producing a comprehensive review/tutorial on Bernoulli’s equation in all its forms, with particular emphasis on common misconceptions. I recently realized that this topic is often poorly addressed in many textbooks and, above all, by the majority of teachers both at school and at university. For this reason, I am writing a proper guide on the subject… turbulence, despite its fascination, remains the toughest enemy! I also presented a short preview of this work at the GIREP-EPEC conference in Leiden: here are the slides (I recommend using Adobe Acrobat for the magnus effect animation).

Deflating bubbles

This simulation illustrates the deflation process of a soap bubble through a cylindrical straw, considering three different straw lengths. The animation was created by my lifelong friend Antonino Cilione and is based on my results in this paper.

Heron's fountain

This video shows the operation of a HF that I built this summer, which is the subject of a article I am writing. As soon as the top cap is removed, the liquid flows downward, increasing the pressure in the lower container and causing the fluid to rise in the right-hand tube.


   As for celestial mechanics, I am modeling the dynamics of binary star systems (which exchange mass with each other) using simple ODEs and generalizing some results obtained by Sir James Jeans a century ago. Finally, still within the realm of motions in central fields, I am attempting to prove a beautiful property of the following orbits, each corresponding to the force field $\vec{f} \propto - \,r^{-n}\,\hat{r}$.

Binary system

Animated GIF

Wonderful orbits

Teaching

During my years as a university student and Ph.D. candidate, I developed a deep passion for teaching physics. I began teaching immediately after earning my bachelor's degree, and it has since become an indispensable part of my life. I take inspiration from influential educators such as David Morin, David Griffiths, Kirk McDonald, Nicholas Wheeler, Michael Spivak and Giuseppe La Rocca, my professor at SNS. As for problem-solving, I have to bow to the Hungarian professors of the Loránd Eötvös Physical Society, who have been producing an astonishing number of original problems and organizing countless physics competitions for decades. They, too, are a great source of inspiration for me!

Here, you can find a collection of notes and exercises I have written over the past six years.

Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS)

Italian Association for the Teaching of Physics (AIF)

  • “One step away from IPhO”

    • This one-week course, also known as Pre-IPhO, is the final challenge for Italian students aiming to qualify for international competitions. After several days of theoretical and experimental training, the winners of the national competition face a final exam to select the two Italian teams taking part in IPhO and EuPhO. Although the exam problems will never be published, my handouts from recent years will be provided below.

    • Celestial Mechanics (ITA) / ENG
    • Electromagnetism (ITA) / ENG
    • Thermodynamics (ITA) / ENG
    • Miscellanea (ITA) / ENG

  • Physics Olympiad Summer School

    • Here is an updated version of the handouts I prepared for the physics school held in Sigillo, aimed at young high school students interested in the Physics Olympiad.

    • Fluid Dynamics (2025) ITA / ENG
    • Estimation Problems (2024) ITA / ENG
    • Dimensional Analysis (2024) ITA / ENG
    • Orbital Mechanics (2019) ITA / ENG

Scuola Superiore di Catania (SSC)

  • Training Camp for the Physics Olympiad

    • Below are the handouts I wrote for the physics school organized by SSC. I plan to translate them into English. The 2026 module will be about optimization problems.

Projects

Here are some projects related to Physics education.

When it comes to collective initiatives, I am especially grateful to my peers, Fabio Zoratti and Giovanni Maria Tomaselli. Fabio is an outstanding leader, while Gimmy is simply the best (young) physicist I know. They not only gave me the opportunity to participate in these projects but also taught me so much!

Finally, a special thank you goes to my dear friend Antonino. We have known each other since kindergarten, and I am incredibly grateful for our weekly discussions about AI and for the tech support he so graciously provides.

“Problem-Solving Techniques in Physics, with Original Problems and Debunked Myths”

In my free time, I am authoring a comprehensive textbook on problem-solving techniques aimed at talented high schoolers and university freshmen. Unlike standard materials, it is specifically designed to debunk common myths and correct the pervasive misconceptions often found in traditional physics teaching and textbooks. Its italian version is expected to be published in February 2027.

Danny and Tony's Lab

Together with a computer scientist friend, I am developing a fully custom-built virtual and interactive physics laboratory hosted on a website. The platform will allow users to perform a variety of physics experiments within a 3D environment where they can walk around and interact with the apparatus—under the watchful eye of a virtual lab technician modeled after John Cleese. Some of these experiments are of my own design—several of which have been, or will be, presented in my educational publications—and cover topics in both classical and modern physics. The experiments will be simulated computationally, allowing users to adjust the relevant parameters and visualize in real time how the physical phenomenon gets modified. One section of the lab will include an astronomical observatory for celestial mechanics simulations. So far, we have developed a few fluid dynamics simulations, such as one on deflating soap bubbles and another on Heron’s fountain.

Italian Physics Olympiad

Organized by the Italian Association for the Teaching of Physics (AIF) since 1987, the Italian Physics Olympiad draws roughly 30,000 high school students from all corners of Italy each year. I began my journey with the AIF in 2019 as a trainer for the top-performing students preparing for the IPhO and EuPhO. After five years of dedicated involvement, I was appointed to the national organizing board. Our core responsibilities involve designing theoretical and experimental problems for the competition's various stages, evaluating the contestants, and coaching the two national teams. The national finals are held every April in Senigallia, where, alongside the intense physics, we always find time to humiliate the young contestants at beach soccer.

Physics School in Pisa

Since 2018, a passionate group of physics students at Scuola Normale Superiore has run an annual, week-long physics school for 24 handpicked Italian high schoolers. Our aim is to prepare them for the Physics Olympiad while giving them a genuine taste of university-level physics, bridging theoretical classroom concepts with hands-on laboratory work. All lecture notes and video recordings are available on our website in Italian. In 2019, the project was honored with the "Didactics of Physics" award by the Italian Physical Society. Beyond the physics itself, this initiative has been incredibly meaningful to me, as it allowed me to forge deep, lasting friendships with many wonderful people.

Lab Cusu Aula Scalinata

Training Camp for the Physics Olympiad in Catania

Since 2019, students at Scuola Superiore di Catania have organized an annual physics training camp for high schoolers from southern Italy who qualify for the national stage of the Physics Olympiad. The camp features theoretical lectures, problem-solving sessions, hands-on experiments, and a concluding competition. I joined the organizing team in 2023, which allowed me to forge wonderful friendships with the talented young physicists from Catania.

Aula Scalinata Lab Cusu

Team Physics Competition

In 2023, following four years of meticulous planning, my university colleagues and I founded the first-ever Team Physics Competition. This annual, multi-stage tournament engages roughly 600 high school teams nationwide. The top 20 teams advance to the national finals, where they compete face-to-face in an arena that feels more like an electrifying sporting event than a traditional exam. Check out the time-lapse of the 2024 final below. Can you spot the Easter egg?

Here is a funny problem I created for the 2025 contest: "Captain Hector Barbossa has a special spyglass made up of two thin converging lenses aligned along the same axis. The peculiarity of his instrument is that the magnification does not depend on the distance from the observed object. If the two lenses are separated by 11 cm and the focal length of the lens closest to the eyes is 1.8 cm, what is the angular magnification of the spyglass?"

Suggestions

(Still in the pipeline, waiting for the plumber)

Physics Olympiad and other competitions

Competing after High School

The Art of Problem-Crafting

Undergraduate Recommendations

My favourite Physics articles


“And now for something completely different”

  • My sister and I grew up in the countryside, surrounded by goats, pigs, chickens, and rabbits. My maternal grandparents were farmers, and during elementary and middle school, I loved helping them in their vegetable garden, while my sister took care of the bunnies and kittens (she's now a veterinarian). My relatives taught me how to work the land, harvest crops, and—most importantly—make do. I never learned to drive the tractor, but I loved riding pigs! Here’s my three-and-a-half-year-old self, grooming his humble steed and preparing it for battle against the monsters of his imagination. Back then, I had much more hair than I do now 😱.

    After building a treehouse and endless wooden soccer goals with my friends, I became interested in DIY. Now, besides gardening, climbing trees and chopping wood, I really enjoy tackling household issues, especially plumbing problems. In 2023, I almost got electrocuted after successfully fixing the motor of the washing machine. These are the risks of the trade!

  • I was raised on Bud Spencer & Terence Hill movies, but my childhood hero was Nicolas Cage. Over time, my tastes have changed. In the past few years, I’ve become a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock, Sergio Leone, and Terry Gilliam, and my favorite kind of cinema is thriller and horror, a genre whose peak, I believe, was reached by the Italian gialli of the 1970s, like Dario Argento's. Here are my favorite movies, more or less in order.


  • Heavily inspired by the cheerful insanity of Monty Python, I developed a passion for directing and editing absurd short films during my Ph.D. You can find a few surviving examples on my YouTube channel. I have a massive backlog of increasingly ridiculous scripts that have never come to life, primarily because my friends steadfastly refuse to be cast in them!

  • When it comes to music, my favourite composers are Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni, Brian Wilson, and Ray Davies. During the pandemic, I discovered the fascinating world of Progressive Rock. Since then, I have become a huge admirer of bands like Yes, Caravan, King Crimson, early Genesis, RTF and VDGG. I enjoy playing their songs on the bass guitar, even though some are still too challenging. Here’s a list of my favorite music albums (not just prog), roughly in order.


  • When it comes to sports, my tastes are fairly ordinary. I go running regularly and play soccer quite often, even as a goalkeeper. I learned to play with my neighborhood friends during my teenage years, on a dirt field we maintained ourselves. A few of us (including me) ended up in the hospital more than once, with broken arms and head injuries. Each time, our lovely mothers were furious and ready to give us a piece of their mind. A few years later, watching Ronnie "The Rocket" O'Sullivan play snooker on TV sparked my interest in the world of billiards. I love playing 8-ball and 9-ball, although I still haven’t mastered sidespin—and probably never will!