Materials Science C

[TheGatesofLogic]

I wouldn't say that is true, any basic physics course will inform you on the mechanics of stress and strain and Materials Science is essentially an extension of this in terms of different types of materials and also a description of it on the molecular scale. As such there are an enormous number of labs that can be done with it that only involve a few paperclips or a rubber band or something and quantifying small scale experiments. Even the portions of the event not directly involved with stress and strain are easily testable, you can measure the size of molecules by dropping them in water and measuring the maximum diameter they spread across vs the volume dropped. It really isn't as terrifying an event as people make it seem.

[iwonder]

Well, maybe your basic physics course covers stress and strain, but those words are taboo in any of our physics 1 teachers minds. Hooke's law applies only to springs and it's F=kx to them. And also, I would say there's a lot in the event that goes beyond stress and strain.

[Gemma W]

I would say that any good science olympiad event should go well beyond what would be covered in a normal high school class, or else there's not all that much point. I have no interest in merely regurgitating what I've already learned in school - having that base is nice, but the thing that makes scio interesting is learning new things and challenging myself. The problem with B division Heredity, for example, was that the topics were so narrowly restricted that it was impossible to make an interesting event. We don't want to have that problem in C division as well. Even if Mat Sci is pretty open-ended, it's still way better and more interesting than if it did stay within the confines of basic high school physics.

[technomario]

What is a rough probablility that there will be multiple labs with the test this year?

[computergeek3]

What is a rough probablility that there will be multiple labs with the test this year?

As an extremely general probability: 2, based on the topics outlined in the rules

As a more realistic range: 0-5, all of varying length and topic

[teaforterry]

Does anyone know exactly what kinds of propeware we could possibly be asked to use?

[alwaysphonehome]

I was looking over the event sheet and was trying to figure out what they meant by Surface Area/Volume Ratio. I know that it can deal with biology (cells) and chemistry (reaction rates and such), but what exactly do we need to know in terms of Materials Science? Is there a specific relationship we need to know? Thanks in advance!

[rodowd]

At our regional competition there were no traditional "labs", but lab concepts needed to be used in the test to make sense of the information given. I guess it depends on the supervisor and what they want to do

[rodowd]

Anyone else take the mat sci test at northeast pa regionals? My team did okay but I felt that the test was both difficult and weirdly made. Thoughts on this or other tests?

[rodowd]

Alwaysphonehome, I think you have the gist of the surface/volume stuff. The only other common application I'm familiar with is with engineering and how mass increases at a different rate than area so you need to take that into account when building things. Hope that helps! And sorry for all the consecutive posts...