Threshold for a competitive time

[Bazinga+]

Yeah, sure, there's a reason jet dragsters are incredibly fast, but I assume it's very very hard to make a highly efficient and symmetric/reversible way to move air that fast. He might be able to speed up to that point but he couldn't slow back down as fast.

What you need to do is devise a way to gain frictional force without increasing mass

-5 points to anyone whose description of their solution involves the term 'gravitational waves'.

Increasing mass does increase the frictional force but it wont increase the max acceleration. From my research the greatest traction you can get with a gym floor with any material is .5-.6. There are some great wheels like Dr.fizzix high traction wheels (http://www.docfizzix.com/products/bulk- ... 50df.shtml), but i'm not sure whether it would be accurate since the wheels are quite soft.

[iwonder]

Increasing mass does increase the frictional force but it wont increase the max acceleration. From my research the greatest traction you can get with a gym floor with any material is .5-.6. There are some great wheels like Dr.fizzix high traction wheels (http://www.docfizzix.com/products/bulk- ... 50df.shtml), but i'm not sure whether it would be accurate since the wheels are quite soft.

(That's why I said increasing the force withOUT increasing mass)

[UQOnyx]

I might be a little bit late for this but I'd like to give my two sense.
Our school goes to regionals with huge powerhouse schools who consistently place at the national and state levels. We had a car with 1 m/s speeds but with a decent level of accuracy, and our car was bound to score within top 3. (Though unforeseen circumstances prevented us from placing...)

[windu34]

I might be a little bit late for this but I'd like to give my two sense.
Our school goes to regionals with huge powerhouse schools who consistently place at the national and state levels. We had a car with 1 m/s speeds but with a decent level of accuracy, and our car was bound to score within top 3. (Though unforeseen circumstances prevented us from placing...)

1 m/s adds up to 8 seconds, which adds 80 points to your score. To be competitive top 3 at most competitions, you need at the most a 30 or 35 combined run score.
I think a good time in general to be competitive is 3 seconds or less.

[Bazinga+]

I might be a little bit late for this but I'd like to give my two sense.
Our school goes to regionals with huge powerhouse schools who consistently place at the national and state levels. We had a car with 1 m/s speeds but with a decent level of accuracy, and our car was bound to score within top 3. (Though unforeseen circumstances prevented us from placing...)

1 m/s adds up to 8 seconds, which adds 80 points to your score. To be competitive top 3 at most competitions, you need at the most a 30 or 35 combined run score.
I think a good time in general to be competitive is 3 seconds or less.

Well i managed to get 4th at my regionals (which is one of the most competitive regionals in the state) with a time of like 4 seconds and was almost 20 cm off, which makes 60 pts (1st placed was 3 seconds and 15 cm off= 45 pts). If you are doing better than that I think you are good for regionals. Now states is a different question.