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Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: August 19th, 2014, 3:27 pm
by Jim_R

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: August 25th, 2014, 5:50 pm
by chinesesushi
Anybody have any ideas for this year's build?

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 10th, 2014, 7:29 pm
by c-shell617
The rules have changed this year, starting with a different lever. It has to have an 80 centimeter rod instead of a meter. When building, make sure to work with your partner, and as always you have to practice! Hope that this helps you out. Just review the new rules, and remember to prepare a binder with Simple Machines things in it! :)

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 4:23 am
by Unome
And, as with last year, the rules are still too easy :P

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 10:53 am
by JonB
chinesesushi wrote:Anybody have any ideas for this year's build?

It can be done with minimal modifications from last year, but to accomplish this task QUICKLY is really the challenge.

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 12:59 pm
by Unome
JonB wrote:
chinesesushi wrote:Anybody have any ideas for this year's build?

It can be done with minimal modifications from last year, but to accomplish this task QUICKLY is really the challenge.
Well said.

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 5:47 pm
by chalker
Unome wrote:And, as with last year, the rules are still too easy :P

I'm curious why you think that. We had a really good spread of scores at Nationals last year, and device testing is going to be quite a bit more complicated this year.

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 7:43 pm
by GoldenKnightB
chalker wrote:
Unome wrote:And, as with last year, the rules are still too easy :P

I'm curious why you think that. We had a really good spread of scores at Nationals last year, and device testing is going to be quite a bit more complicated this year.
Did you have a good spread of scores for the device testing portion? I would imagine that many of the teams with an accurate device were also pretty fast.

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 12th, 2014, 4:28 am
by Unome
It could just be that we had really sucky tests, but the event always seemed very easy (Although I do like the extra difficulty with the lever now).

Re: Simple Machines B/Compound Machines C

Posted: September 12th, 2014, 5:14 am
by JonB
GoldenKnightB wrote:
chalker wrote:
Unome wrote:And, as with last year, the rules are still too easy :P

I'm curious why you think that. We had a really good spread of scores at Nationals last year, and device testing is going to be quite a bit more complicated this year.
Did you have a good spread of scores for the device testing portion? I would imagine that many of the teams with an accurate device were also pretty fast.
Agreed that the device testing will be more complicated this year and to accomplish this quickly is proving to be a fantastic challenge. Top ten teams at nats had an average time of 28.35 seconds, but the exam score and accuracy of device cannot be ignored in the determination of their rank. Top 10 teams scored from 44.5-47.3 on the exam portion (out of 50). Top 10 teams had a final score ranging from 91.63-94.66. Ultimately, the margins were extremely narrow- like many of the events at nats.