The PhysicsBowl has its beginnings in 1979, when AAPT Staff Physicist Tim Ingoldsby noted the growing desire for a national level high school physics examination similar to the well-established American Chemical Society's national chemistry exams.

After a few years of development and over 600 questions submitted by AAPT members, the first contest (originally called "the Metrologic Exam") was held in 1983 with great success and interest from students and teachers. In 1990, the contest was renamed "The PhysicsBowl" and has since then regularly seen hundreds of schools and thousands of students from across the world compete.

The PhysicsBowl questions are taken from high school physics: everything from conceptual physics to college level physics and modern physics is testable, so it's not expected for a student to know all of the topics on the test.

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