General Mission Possible

[foreverphysics]

All general questions & answers, problems and solutions, and ranting can go here.
Especially ranting...because people tend to run into problems in MP a lot...and have nowhere to rant. Feel free to rant here.
This isn't anything specific, so for specific problems...look somewhere else, maybe somewhere else in the subforum.
All thoughts are allowed.

[chalker]

All general questions & answers, problems and solutions, and ranting can go here.
Especially ranting...because people tend to run into problems in MP a lot...and have nowhere to rant. Feel free to rant here.
This isn't anything specific, so for specific problems...look somewhere else, maybe somewhere else in the subforum.
All thoughts are allowed.

I'd like to start the ranting by ranting about the fact that there is too much ranting about MP compared to the other events. Can we all perhaps agree to be more equal opportunity in our ranting this year so that the 'love' gets spread around a bit?

[mnstrviola]

We love what we rant, and rant what we love

[illusionist]

I'm gonna anti-rant okay? Here goes:

MISSION POSSIBLE IS MY MOST FAVORITEST EVENT EVER! IT'S LIKE AN UBER EVENT! THERE'S SO MANY AWESOME THINGS ABOUT, THAT IF I STARTED RANTING, I WOULD TAKE UP TWO PAGES ON THIS THREAD. SO YEAH, MISSION POSSIBLE IS BEAST. IT WAS FUN. I LIKED IT. YAY. MP IS BOSS. LIKE ME. I REALLY LIKED THE EVENT. I WISH IT WAS IN DIVISION C AGAIN SO THAT I COULD DO IT AGAIN. IT WAS FUN. I LIKED IT. [/rant]

Okay, I'm done.
But seriously though, Mission Possible was probably one of my top events. I felt that we were given so much room to design and be creative. Hope it comes back to Division C before I leave.

[Littleboy]

I am just curious but what are this years tasks?

[A Person]

Just a question, what describes a granular material exactly?

[illusionist]

Well, last year sand was popular. I believe it is possible to use salt and sugar as well (might be better to submit an official rule clarification, and the Chalkers might be able to help).

[bri2433]

I'm excited for this year

[chalker7]

Just a question, what describes a granular material exactly?

Apparently a number of tournament hosts could not run Mission because they cannot have sand in their schools (any spills would result in serious damage to the finish on gym floors, etc.) So, the term granular material was added to allow for a larger variety of substances.
Submit an official clarification for an official response, but a generally overarching list includes things like sand, BB's, unpopped popcorn kernels, sugar, etc. Effectively, any solid material that can pour out of a container is probably good. Read the following for some more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_material

[Kordo]

A couple of quick questions: For task 4d, would a bolt or threaded rod be usable as the screw in this task? And for 4l, could you use the same mass for the task, pull the mass up the ramp, release it down the ramp and have it pulled back up again? I would think that as long as the task was initiated by the prior task it would be acceptable. That being said, if the raising of the mass was to begin the raising of the mass again, would that be acceptable? This is not a rant but just the beginning of many questions that I believe make this the best event to watch and judge in science olympiad.