Blocks Task

9enigma6
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by 9enigma6 »

What about covering the blocks with something, as long as they are made of wood? Would that be constituted as legal? The blocks themselves would be wood but have something attached to them/wrapped around them so they may not appear as wood but are...as long as it could be shown that the blocks are wood I think it would be legal...

Also, what about magnets in the blocks to help keep them together? Would that not be considered legal seeing as though the rules state that each block must support the blocks on top of it?
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by Dark Sabre »

9enigma6 wrote:What about covering the blocks with something, as long as they are made of wood? Would that be constituted as legal? The blocks themselves would be wood but have something attached to them/wrapped around them so they may not appear as wood but are...as long as it could be shown that the blocks are wood I think it would be legal...

Also, what about magnets in the blocks to help keep them together? Would that not be considered legal seeing as though the rules state that each block must support the blocks on top of it?

What are you thinking of doing? At least in my book, what you are stacking does not have to be 100% wood. Painted blocks would pass probably any judge. Beyond that, some might be unhappy. And if it is anything more than paint, you would have to be able to show the judge that it is a wooden block underneath. Like if you dipped your blocks in an opaque plastic for some reason, you couldn't demonstrate that they were wooden without destroying them. I wouldn't really recommend having anything more substantial than paint...be sure to email your competition supervisor if you are unsure about the legality.

At least the way I read the rules, each block must have the entire weight of the block(s) above it pass through it to the block underneath it. If you have a magnet embedded in each block such that they are attracted to each other, each block is still bearing the entire load of those above it. If you had a magnet in each block and were stacking them in an iron tube or something, it could be argued that the blocks are not supporting all of the weight, due to the magnetic attraction to the tube. That's my reasoning anyway, your mileage may vary.
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by 9enigma6 »

Dark Sabre wrote:
9enigma6 wrote:What about covering the blocks with something, as long as they are made of wood? Would that be constituted as legal? The blocks themselves would be wood but have something attached to them/wrapped around them so they may not appear as wood but are...as long as it could be shown that the blocks are wood I think it would be legal...

Also, what about magnets in the blocks to help keep them together? Would that not be considered legal seeing as though the rules state that each block must support the blocks on top of it?

What are you thinking of doing? At least in my book, what you are stacking does not have to be 100% wood. Painted blocks would pass probably any judge. Beyond that, some might be unhappy. And if it is anything more than paint, you would have to be able to show the judge that it is a wooden block underneath. Like if you dipped your blocks in an opaque plastic for some reason, you couldn't demonstrate that they were wooden without destroying them. I wouldn't really recommend having anything more substantial than paint...be sure to email your competition supervisor if you are unsure about the legality.

At least the way I read the rules, each block must have the entire weight of the block(s) above it pass through it to the block underneath it. If you have a magnet embedded in each block such that they are attracted to each other, each block is still bearing the entire load of those above it. If you had a magnet in each block and were stacking them in an iron tube or something, it could be argued that the blocks are not supporting all of the weight, due to the magnetic attraction to the tube. That's my reasoning anyway, your mileage may vary.
I am just waiting on a reply for clarifications, but I thought I would see what others opinions may be. I was thinking of maybe covering the blocks in some sort of conductive surface (aluminum foil?) in order to create a switch that is closed when all five blocks are stacked.

Okay I was just thinking of embedding magnets to keep the blocks together rather than risk them falling over. Thank you for your input!
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by ktbug »

what if you used walls to get them stacked and then removed them before the run was finished? could that work?
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by Flavorflav »

I got a reply a while ago that screw eyes were okay, so I would guess that magnets would be as well.

I don't know why they don't post these answers. I would imagine they have to keep answering the same questions over and over again, because the answers aren't posted. Also, it kind of defeats the purpose of having a clarifications system at all, since event supervisors will not be aware of the rules in advance if they aren't posted. You could print out the email response and bring it to the competition, but as an event supervisor I don't think I'd trust a kid's printout, since you could just fake one of those pretty easily and I have no way to verify it. Even if I took it, I might have already ruled another way for a kid who didn't have the printout, and then I'd probably have to stick with the ruling. I suppose it works for Nationals, but that only involves a tiny fraction of Olympiad teams.
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by paronomasia »

What about velcro? Like magnets, wouldn't each block still technically support the one above it?

Also, while it says that the blocks cannot touch each other in their unstacked state, it doesn't say they must touch each other in their stacked state. Hmm.
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by Dark Sabre »

ktbug wrote:what if you used walls to get them stacked and then removed them before the run was finished? could that work?
Until the blocks are entirely self-supporting, the task isn't finished. So if you move on to other tasks before the supporting walls are removed, you have parallel tasks running and get a penalty. If you can make it so the machine doesn't continue until the walls are removed, you are fine.
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by ktbug »

Dark Sabre wrote:
ktbug wrote:what if you used walls to get them stacked and then removed them before the run was finished? could that work?
Until the blocks are entirely self-supporting, the task isn't finished. So if you move on to other tasks before the supporting walls are removed, you have parallel tasks running and get a penalty. If you can make it so the machine doesn't continue until the walls are removed, you are fine.
Thank you!
what if I were to drill a hole in the blocks, put a poll down the center and remove it before the next action do you think that might work?
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by Uncle Fester »

To the most recent posts; I thought you couldn't use walls?
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Re: Blocks Task

Post by C4 »

Uncle Fester wrote:To the most recent posts; I thought you couldn't use walls?
From my understanding, as long as the blocks are self-supporting by the end of the step, you can do whatever, including use walls as long as they are removed by the end.
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