When I was a lad, the science fair was a dozen schools.   The Google Science Fair has students from around the world, which means I would be unlikely to spend 3 minutes looking at the problem, guess because I had to get to another event, and still place second in the physics competition.

The good old days.

But the prizes are better than the textbooks I got also.   So if you're ages 13 to 18, check it out.   You may a $50,000 scholarship, a 10-day trip to the Galápagos Islands or a three-day site visit to CERN.