It's About Time C

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Re: It's About Time C

Post by jkang »

chalker wrote: If you are referring to the sound files on the National website, there is a readme.txt file in the zip that answers your question:

Each audio file consists of the following:

1. An initial warning 'bell'
2. A short delay
3. Another warning 'bell'
4. A short delay
5. A start 'beep'
6. A precise delay equal to the time in the filename
7. A stop 'beep'

The time trial begins at the beginning of the start beep (step 5 above) and ends at the beginning of the stop beep (step 7).
Thank you so much! :D
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by mogrady »

Just a question in prep for next year since it looks like this will return as an event... what type of studying did you guys find most useful on your tests? I ask because there is a lack of tests in this event on the test exchange. Like what questions seemed to come up most in your regionals and invites: history, math, clocks, etc.?
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Bungee Drop /2/-/10/
It's About Time /2/3/4/
Write It Do It /2/1/2/
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by jkang »

mogrady wrote:Just a question in prep for next year since it looks like this will return as an event... what type of studying did you guys find most useful on your tests? I ask because there is a lack of tests in this event on the test exchange. Like what questions seemed to come up most in your regionals and invites: history, math, clocks, etc.?
Generally if you just look through the Wikipedia articles for "Clock," "Calendar," and "Time," and go through all of the sub-links and related articles, you can find most of the stuff that proctors put on time tests. For example, almost every test that I've taken this year has involved how the second is defined in some way, and the Wikipedia article for "Second" can easily be reached from the "Time" article.
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by jkang »

Quick question about the rules. Under the "Construction" Section, rule 3.b. states that "Commercial counters, timepieces or their parts are not allowed." However, are we allowed to separately bring in a commercial counter that is not a part of the device in order to count oscillations? As this isn't a part of the device, I can see teams presenting a case that this is not necessarily part of the "construction" of the device, and thus can be used.
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by syo_astro »

jkang wrote:Quick question about the rules. Under the "Construction" Section, rule 3.b. states that "Commercial counters, timepieces or their parts are not allowed." However, are we allowed to separately bring in a commercial counter that is not a part of the device in order to count oscillations? As this isn't a part of the device, I can see teams presenting a case that this is not necessarily part of the "construction" of the device, and thus can be used.
I am not reading off the rules directly, but that goes directly against the intent of the event. The point is to mechanically make your own clock, and really that makes it one of the simpler builds in scioly (string with a mass on wound around something...okay, it takes some more calibration/designing, but still). Also, if you are using that to count oscillations you could just be directly using that commercial counter, which would be unfair (the "it could be used for this!" rule goes both ways if you want to try it...). Another problem I have with that idea is that if it was like a watch or something, as I recall one can't have open watches/clocks during the build portion or something (I know there was at least the "cover up clocks" thing somewhere). Hopefully not too wrong about this, good luck/hope that helped.
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by GoldenKnight1 »

syo_astro wrote:
jkang wrote:Quick question about the rules. Under the "Construction" Section, rule 3.b. states that "Commercial counters, timepieces or their parts are not allowed." However, are we allowed to separately bring in a commercial counter that is not a part of the device in order to count oscillations? As this isn't a part of the device, I can see teams presenting a case that this is not necessarily part of the "construction" of the device, and thus can be used.
I am not reading off the rules directly, but that goes directly against the intent of the event. The point is to mechanically make your own clock, and really that makes it one of the simpler builds in scioly (string with a mass on wound around something...okay, it takes some more calibration/designing, but still). Also, if you are using that to count oscillations you could just be directly using that commercial counter, which would be unfair (the "it could be used for this!" rule goes both ways if you want to try it...). Another problem I have with that idea is that if it was like a watch or something, as I recall one can't have open watches/clocks during the build portion or something (I know there was at least the "cover up clocks" thing somewhere). Hopefully not too wrong about this, good luck/hope that helped.
Certainly a watch during the trials would not be allowed but I am unclear if you used a counter (like the type used to count the number of people entering a room) is really against the spirit of this rule. As you stated this event could have something as simple as a mass on a string swinging back and forth. If you had a counter in your hand that you pressed every time the mass swung back and forth you are doing the same thing as if you counted it out loud. This really seems to give no significant advantage or changes the engineering necessary in the device. I have seen other teams with pennies who move them from one place to another and then count the change at the end. Lots of ways to count but none of these that I am suggesting really tells the time on its own.
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by chalker »

jkang wrote:Quick question about the rules. Under the "Construction" Section, rule 3.b. states that "Commercial counters, timepieces or their parts are not allowed." However, are we allowed to separately bring in a commercial counter that is not a part of the device in order to count oscillations? As this isn't a part of the device, I can see teams presenting a case that this is not necessarily part of the "construction" of the device, and thus can be used.

As always, this isn't the place for official comments or clarifications. That said, hand tally clickers or similar counter type devices are NOT allowed if they were commercially bought.

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Re: It's About Time C

Post by syo_astro »

Oh yeah I forgot the don't use the site for clarifications bit >.<. I'd say this goes along "if you have to maybe bring up an argument about it because it's a technicality that could act as cheating"...then a competitor should know not to use it. I think there's bigger issues to worry about anyway in the mean time before nats/if there's other state competitions still left.
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by jkang »

Now that nationals is done, anyone know the raw scores for this event? Or do we have to wait until the CD is released from this year? And if so, around when do those usually come out?
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by mogrady »

The question "How long is a jiffy?" came up on almost every test i took last year. The internet seems to have two opinions on this. Anyone know the true answer?
2015
Astronomy /2/12/7/
Bungee Drop /2/-/10/
It's About Time /2/3/4/
Write It Do It /2/1/2/
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