Designs

[lllazar]

That's not really why i don't like the new scoring system, but i don't get your point. Regardless of the scoring system, teams are going to build as light as possible. And in this scoring system, there is actually a limit to how light you can build because you want to hold as much weight as possible. In the older scoring system, even lighter towers would have been present. It's unfortunate, but towers must be protected, like all building events (Except the big ones which aren't so delicate...)

[DaBalsa]

I mean the lighter the Tower the more fragile it gets...so, there is an increased likelihood it may break. With the old scoring system, this wouldn't hurt a team as much because their tower was fairly light, but now it exponentially destroys their efficiency/score. Also, the new system, as you said, limits innovation and new designs because of the weight limit.

[SLM]

I mean the lighter the Tower the more fragile it gets...so, there is an increased likelihood it may break. With the old scoring system, this wouldn't hurt a team as much because their tower was fairly light, but now it exponentially destroys their efficiency/score. Also, the new system, as you said, limits innovation and new designs because of the weight limit.

Real-life structures are designed and constructed to hold the loads they are intended to carry. If we consider Towers as an engineering event (not just a building event), then there is educational value in observing some of the engineering guidelines along the way. Regardless, IMHO, the new formula for calculating the score does not pose a significant obstacle towards creativity and innovation in this project.

[cool cat]

What is the best design for the top part of the tower???

[Littleboy]

What are some problems with C towers that people are having? Is it with the connection between the two halves, the base being slanted so much, or what? How are people solving these issues with little weight gain?

[lllazar]

Biggest problem for me is connecting the top and bottom. I think i'm just going to build the entire structure as one from now on.

[fleet130]

I felt really bad for them, because if the rules hadn't changed, they would most likely have done much more decently.

It's no secret that the rules change frequently (almost every year). This is done to change the problem and require different solutions. In this case, the failure was not in the rules, but that the team failed to read and understand them, or they "played it too close to the wire".

[Flavorflav]

This may be kind of random, but I want to hear some opinions. After having been to many competitions...I too have noticed that many schools that usually don't do so well at this type of event are suddenly doing so well. I think this is because of the new scoring system. Although it is good in theory (more realistic), I think they should change it back to how it always was. I actually went to the NY State competition to watch the high schools teams compete in Towers and maybe get some ideas, and here I noticed the same thing. Also, I was watching FM/Spackenkill compete and FM's tower failed completely and I overheard that it had broken after impound, but had a mass of about 7? Maybe less? I couldn't get to taking a picture of it...but they got 41st place. I felt really bad for them, because if the rules hadn't changed, they would most likely have done much more decently. So essentially if a team that has worked really hard to develop a tower that could hold the entire load with a low mass had something bad happen to the tower (like FM), then the event would be a complete bomb because of the new scoring system. What say you?

Towers impounded immediately before they were tested at NY States. How could it break after impound?

[DaBalsa]

I'm not really sure how they managed to break it. However, there were impounds 30 min before the testing of the towers, maybe it was during that period. As for the rules change, I agree that rules changes are for the good, but the change in scoring seems unnecessary. An accident to the tower or maybe a faulty piece of wood that results in early failure completely ruins your score. Score of maybe 25, to a score of ~1. Just my opinion...I understand what you guys are saying.

[lllazar]

Should the chimney be slightly angled inward so that the top of the chimney has a smaller square than the bottom? I feel this would help to eliminate balance issues.