Leaving Cert: Physics: Sometime during the lifetimes of the current generation of Leaving Cert students, magnetic fields within the earth will dramatically shift so that North becomes South and South becomes North.
Precisely why and when this will happen is unsure, but it is the kind of question that is attracting more students to physics.
Students are bringing their own suppositions and theories about puzzling phenomena to the subject, which is one reason why numbers doing the Leaving Cert physics exam were up by more than 500 this year to over 9,000.
Another attraction is that this year's papers, at both ordinary and higher levels, were judged to be fair. The questions rewarded students who were steady workers.
This wasn't an exam that anyone could successfully cram for because it emphasised thinking skills as much as textbook knowledge, said TUI spokesman Mr Alan Monnelly, of Newpark Comprehensive in Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Questions in both papers were broad in nature and drew heavily on the "science, technology and society" aspect of the syllabus, which takes a wider look at physics and physical phenomena than the previous syllabus.
Mr Monnelly said that strong back-up from the Department meant students and teachers were well resourced for the subject.
One "lovely" question was number nine in the Higher Paper, which drew on history, asking students to name the Irishman who named the electron (George Johnson Stoney 1826-1911).
The ordinary paper had a quote from the teachers' handbook (question 11b), from which students were asked to deduce the name of a material used to make semiconductors.
Students who had worked hard would have no difficulty with either paper, Mr Monnelly said.