So... What did it take to win your State?

[dholdgreve]

Were there any additional State competitions this past weekend that anyone would like to share?

[JZhang1]

Interested in hearing scores from Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania States.

[Unome]

Interested in hearing scores from Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania States.

^ especially considering how Grayslake beat Daniel Wright, and Woodlawn was 6th.

[Girlpower05]

Our states tournament (Michigan) just occurred yesterday, and we took 4th place in towers. The efficiency of our tower was 2860, and it was a nonbonus B tower. The tower weighed 4.69 grams, and held 13.25kg. Unfortunately, the top three scores in Michigan are unknown, but they were all likely above 3000. Until regionals, our tower had been of Balsa Man's design, and we reached scores of 2200 with it. After regionals, we spent a month pursuing the nonbonus only X's tower, and succeeded in breaking 3000 with that design. We could not have gone as far in towers as we did without the help of forums, and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this book of information.

[Girlpower05]

The top schools in Michigan were
1: Power Middle
2: Slauson Middle
3: Meads mill
4: East Middle Plymouth , 2832

[MIScioly1]

In Michigan, I know of a tower that was right around 1900 that did not place in the top 8. I believe the cutoff was around 2000, and the best was above 2500. The competition was really tough at States this year.

[MIScioly1]

In Michigan, I know of a tower that was right around 1900 that did not place in the top 8. I believe the cutoff was around 2000, and the best was above 2500. The competition was really tough at States this year.

That is for Division C ^^^^^

[Balsa Man]

Our states tournament (Michigan) just occurred yesterday, and we took 4th place in towers. The efficiency of our tower was 2860, and it was a nonbonus B tower. The tower weighed 4.69 grams, and held 13.25kg. Unfortunately, the top three scores in Michigan are unknown, but they were all likely above 3000. Until regionals, our tower had been of Balsa Man's design, and we reached scores of 2200 with it. After regionals, we spent a month pursuing the nonbonus only X's tower, and succeeded in breaking 3000 with that design. We could not have gone as far in towers as we did without the help of forums, and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this book of information.

[Balsa Man]

Our states tournament (Michigan) just occurred yesterday, and we took 4th place in towers. The efficiency of our tower was 2860, and it was a nonbonus B tower. The tower weighed 4.69 grams, and held 13.25kg. Unfortunately, the top three scores in Michigan are unknown, but they were all likely above 3000. Until regionals, our tower had been of Balsa Man's design, and we reached scores of 2200 with it. After regionals, we spent a month pursuing the nonbonus only X's tower, and succeeded in breaking 3000 with that design. We could not have gone as far in towers as we did without the help of forums, and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this book of information.

Its great what collectively we've compiled, and its great to hear its helping folk. That IS the idea. 2860 is very respectable.
Working on the important, engineering principle, "if it works, it works, even if you don't fully understand how it work", we're (B team and C team I'm working with) taking the path you took after Regionals for Nationals, going to all Xs. Think we have enough specs info to have a run at all Xs meeting circle bonus, which will involve strengthening lower Xs, because of the greater length. One thing that it looks like will help that is going to 5/32" legs-lighter and higher buckling strength than the 1/8 we used at State. This way, don't have to create new, good jigs. I really appreciate the good info on what it takes to make an all Xs non-circle bonus high performing tower work.

As I've said before, don't...fully/deeply understand the numbers on all Xs like I do for ladders and Xs, but hopefully do understand how to convert/adapt working non-circle bonus specs to circle bonus configuration. We'll see in the next few days.

[Crtomir]

One thing that it looks like will help that is going to 5/32" legs-lighter and higher buckling strength than the 1/8 we used at State.

That's an interesting idea: going to a larger cross-sectional area for the main columns. Theoretically, for the same density of balsa wood, 5/33"x5/32" should have higher buckling strength than 1/8"x1/8", right? So maybe you can get away with less density wood for the main columns, or, alternatively, use less X-braces.

For most of the season, our girls were building Div-B towers with the bonus. The best scores (2200 to 2500) came with a bracing geometry that mimics what you see on power line transmission towers (a little bit of Wind Power event thrown in right here ). That enabled the long X-braces to be braced themselves. The drawback was that the bracing ended up being a little more wood than for pure X-braces alone.