Sand Timer Task

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Jim_R
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Sand Timer Task

Post by Jim_R »

Discussion for the Sand Timer task.
-The path of the Administrator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.

-Nothing\'s gonna get deleted. We\'re gonna be like three little Fonzies here. And what\'s Fonzie like? Come on, what\'s Fonzie like?
-Cool?
-Correctamundo. And that\'s what we\'re gonna be. We\'re gonna be cool. Now, I\'m gonna count to three, and when I count three, you let go of your mouse, and back away from the keyboard. But when you do it, you do it cool. Ready? One... two... three.
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by Flavorflav »

Clarifications aren't open yet, so for the heck of it I'll ask my question here. Under 3.m, it says "electricity must not be used for further actions after the sand timer has started." Do you suppose they mean after it has started and before it has completed, or from that point on? i.e., if the sand timer is your second task, are you forbidden electricity for the rest of the run, or simply until it initiates the next action? The way it is worded suggests the former, but I suspect the intent was the latter.
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by Dark Sabre »

I would assume that "after the sand timer has started" refers to any time after the first grain of sand falls.

I'm fairly sure that they intend for you to not use electricity at any point after the start of the sand timer. Time and clarifications will tell, but that's what I think they mean for you to do.
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by maggymay »

Flavorflav wrote:Clarifications aren't open yet, so for the heck of it I'll ask my question here. Under 3.m, it says "electricity must not be used for further actions after the sand timer has started." Do you suppose they mean after it has started and before it has completed, or from that point on? i.e., if the sand timer is your second task, are you forbidden electricity for the rest of the run, or simply until it initiates the next action? The way it is worded suggests the former, but I suspect the intent was the latter.
Wait...how do you guys already have your manuals/event lists? We ordered ours August 31st and they're not *here* yet...(grump).

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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by Flavorflav »

Dark Sabre wrote:I would assume that "after the sand timer has started" refers to any time after the first grain of sand falls.

I'm fairly sure that they intend for you to not use electricity at any point after the start of the sand timer. Time and clarifications will tell, but that's what I think they mean for you to do.
Hmm. That seems a strange thing to do. The final task is easy enough to begin without electricity, so all that the rule really accomplishes is to make everybody do the timer last. I wonder what the rationale is.

ETA: maggymay, I ordered mine August 31, too, and they arrived today.
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by fleet130 »

maggymay wrote:Wait...how do you guys already have your manuals/event lists? We ordered ours August 31st and they're not *here* yet
I ordered them on the 8th of Aug from the Science Olympiad Web Store & got them a few days ago. Historically, orders are processed in the order received. Don't know how many orders they can process in a day.
Information expressed here is solely the opinion of the author. Any similarity to that of the management or any official instrument is purely coincidental! Doing Science Olympiad since 1987!
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by Flavorflav »

This question is not actually about the sand timer task, but I don't see another place to put it. For the starting task, it says "the quarter must physically touch and snap the mousetrap." Would you interpret that as suggesting that the quarter must touch the original mousetrap trigger, or do you think you could extend or replace the trigger with some kind of quarter-catcher? I honestly don't read it that way myself, but it would be much easier to drop the quarter into a cup on top of the trigger.
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by Dark Sabre »

I think that the quarter itself has to directly touch the mousetrap. You could modify the mousetrap extensively, in my opinion, but the quarter had better touch some original component with nothing between the two.
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by penclspinner »

Flavorflav wrote:This question is not actually about the sand timer task, but I don't see another place to put it. For the starting task, it says "the quarter must physically touch and snap the mousetrap." Would you interpret that as suggesting that the quarter must touch the original mousetrap trigger, or do you think you could extend or replace the trigger with some kind of quarter-catcher? I honestly don't read it that way myself, but it would be much easier to drop the quarter into a cup on top of the trigger.
Well in my interpretation of the rules it does not say "unmodified" mousetrap like they used in Mousetrap Vehicle C 2010 rules so I guess you might be able to argue that because it does not contain that word that you could modify the mousetrap. I would be careful about modifying the mousetrap too far, in your situation I would want to be able to prove that the mousetrap could still operate as intended ie still kill a mouse even with the modifications.
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Re: Sand Timer Task

Post by bearasauras »

You can always put a funnel over the mousetrap so that the quarter will land on the trigger
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