Science Olympiad Stories

For anything Science Olympiad-related that might not fall under a specific event or competition.
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by A Person »

1nxtmonster wrote:Just to clarify - The wheels are 3/4 of an inch wide. The car is much wider.

The wheels are 16x wider than a cd, so they have 16x more surface in contact with the ground. Sure, they have less weight per area, but they still have more grip. It's like trying to walk on concrete with soccer cleats vs normal shoes on - more surface area = more grip. (Yes, yes, that's a horrible analogy)
But see it like this. If the wheel has 16 times more surface area, then it has 16 times less weight to give it grip. Its like if you have a small CD that has 50 grams per cm, it has 50 grams total weighing it down for grip. By if you have a huge wheel that has 5 cm of contact, then it would mean you have 10 grams per cm, still 50 grams total. The reason that you may not have the cheats bode well is their material and how clean they are such.

I think. This all came from an old gravity vehicle thread, and I hope it's right.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by 1nxtmonster »

A Person wrote:
1nxtmonster wrote:Just to clarify - The wheels are 3/4 of an inch wide. The car is much wider.

The wheels are 16x wider than a cd, so they have 16x more surface in contact with the ground. Sure, they have less weight per area, but they still have more grip. It's like trying to walk on concrete with soccer cleats vs normal shoes on - more surface area = more grip. (Yes, yes, that's a horrible analogy)
But see it like this. If the wheel has 16 times more surface area, then it has 16 times less weight to give it grip. Its like if you have a small CD that has 50 grams per cm, it has 50 grams total weighing it down for grip. By if you have a huge wheel that has 5 cm of contact, then it would mean you have 10 grams per cm, still 50 grams total. The reason that you may not have the cheats bode well is their material and how clean they are such.

I think. This all came from an old gravity vehicle thread, and I hope it's right.
In theory your point sounds valid. But with CD's and balloons, we were skidding about 6 inches. With wider tires and balloons, we are stopping so instantly the rear wheels come off the ground... I believe this can be explained as so:

Doubling the width halves the weight per surface area, which cancels out any positive effects of wider wheels. But rubber is technically an adhesive, so you also double the adhesion surface, which doubles traction.
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by A Person »

1nxtmonster wrote:
A Person wrote:
1nxtmonster wrote:Just to clarify - The wheels are 3/4 of an inch wide. The car is much wider.

The wheels are 16x wider than a cd, so they have 16x more surface in contact with the ground. Sure, they have less weight per area, but they still have more grip. It's like trying to walk on concrete with soccer cleats vs normal shoes on - more surface area = more grip. (Yes, yes, that's a horrible analogy)
But see it like this. If the wheel has 16 times more surface area, then it has 16 times less weight to give it grip. Its like if you have a small CD that has 50 grams per cm, it has 50 grams total weighing it down for grip. By if you have a huge wheel that has 5 cm of contact, then it would mean you have 10 grams per cm, still 50 grams total. The reason that you may not have the cheats bode well is their material and how clean they are such.

I think. This all came from an old gravity vehicle thread, and I hope it's right.
In theory your point sounds valid. But with CD's and balloons, we were skidding about 6 inches. With wider tires and balloons, we are stopping so instantly the rear wheels come off the ground... I believe this can be explained as so:

Doubling the width halves the weight per surface area, which cancels out any positive effects of wider wheels. But rubber is technically an adhesive, so you also double the adhesion surface, which doubles traction.
I see your logic there. Your car must be super light to have the rear move upwards.
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by 1nxtmonster »

A Person wrote:I see your logic there. Your car must be super light to have the rear move upwards.

Not particularly light, but light nonetheless. Hopefully it will do well at states.
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by nxtscholar »

1nxtmonster wrote:
A Person wrote:
1nxtmonster wrote:Just to clarify - The wheels are 3/4 of an inch wide. The car is much wider.

The wheels are 16x wider than a cd, so they have 16x more surface in contact with the ground. Sure, they have less weight per area, but they still have more grip. It's like trying to walk on concrete with soccer cleats vs normal shoes on - more surface area = more grip. (Yes, yes, that's a horrible analogy)
But see it like this. If the wheel has 16 times more surface area, then it has 16 times less weight to give it grip. Its like if you have a small CD that has 50 grams per cm, it has 50 grams total weighing it down for grip. By if you have a huge wheel that has 5 cm of contact, then it would mean you have 10 grams per cm, still 50 grams total. The reason that you may not have the cheats bode well is their material and how clean they are such.

I think. This all came from an old gravity vehicle thread, and I hope it's right.
In theory your point sounds valid. But with CD's and balloons, we were skidding about 6 inches. With wider tires and balloons, we are stopping so instantly the rear wheels come off the ground... I believe this can be explained as so:

Doubling the width halves the weight per surface area, which cancels out any positive effects of wider wheels. But rubber is technically an adhesive, so you also double the adhesion surface, which doubles traction.
Just putting it out there, but traction is given by friction, no? But this isn't determined by surface area. Friction (and thus traction) is based on the normal force (the amount of contact as in weight, not SA) and the coefficient of friction (the surface characteristics).
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by Water boy »

I spilled the salinometer solution on myself during Water Quality at states
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by knittingfrenzy18 »

Traveling to Orlando by plane, the airport security had to open up my suitcase. They opened the shoebox in my suitcase. They pull out a wooden box with a LED, two lead wires, and an on/off switch out.

"WTH is this?"

My conductivity tester for CJAP. :lol:
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by HeavyHitter406 »

Okay, I have one from Water Quality. Back at the beginning of the year, our coach split up the indicator species to the four of us on the team (Two V, two JV) and told us that our homework was to figure out the feeding habits, life style and general ecology for each of the organisms. So, at the next practice, we all present our findings to the rest of the team, one by one. First the JV goes, talking about the each presenting their material on the "critter" (as our coach called them) that they were given. So when my partners turn came up, her first organism that she presented was Recently killed coral. So the first thing she said was, "Their feeding habits are: 'None, they are dead.'"
Last edited by HeavyHitter406 on May 20th, 2014, 8:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
2014 (Wright State/Lisle/Grayslake/Regionals/State/Nationals)

Water Quality: 8/1/2/1/2/3
Experimental Design: 12/1/5/5/8/37
Road Scholar: 12/2/2/3/3/11
Wheeled Vehicle: 32/6/6/2/11/5
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by A Person »

knittingfrenzy18 wrote:Traveling to Orlando by plane, the airport security had to open up my suitcase. They opened the shoebox in my suitcase. They pull out a wooden box with a LED, two lead wires, and an on/off switch out.

"WTH is this?"

My conductivity tester for CJAP. :lol:
"Why do you need this box of everything you need to construct a bomb on a plane, plus LEDs to look pretty?"
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
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Re: Science Olympiad Stories

Post by pika136 »

In Road Scholar at Nationals, my partner asked the event superviser a lot of questions. Later, the event superviser joked with us that there would be a fee for my partner asking him more questions. Then, I asked the event superviser a question and he bantered "oh good thing it's not your partner asking the question." :D
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