Technical Problem Solving C

[Flavorflav]

Does anybody have last year's national event and understand problem 3? It seems like air should stop entering the bottle when the atmospheric pressure is balanced by the downward pressure at the stopcock, which should be equal to the weight of the water divided by the area of the aperture. You can get the weight of the water but I don't see any way to get the area of the aperture, so I don't see how you can do this problem. And why are the bottles in an ice bath? I don't see how the temperature is relevant. Help!

[icefall5]

Sorry for this, but the previous posters are correct in that there is no information on the wiki. From what I understand from last year's thread, the whole point of this event is essentially to know everything and be able to work through problems using physics or, possibly but improbably, calculus. Is this a correct statement?

[starpug]

That is correct icefall5. I also believe the event has chemistry problems. In addition, TI sponsors the event so learning how to work with the Vernier probes might be to your advantage.