It's About Time C

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Re: It's About Time C

Post by walkingstyx »

Yeah, K'nex and final devices rarely mix well. Also, you might want to try increasing the weight at the bottom to increase the duration. It won't change the period, but it will give it more inertia and decrease the damping factor. You could also try pulling it back a greater angle to start with. Thirdly, when you build it with wood use a bearing or lots of lubricant or something else to decrease friction.
Nationals 2010- Astronomy: 4, Physics Lab: 4, Picture This: 4, It's About Time: 10, Optics: 2
Nationals 2009- Picture This: 4, It's About Time: 8, Astronomy: 9
Nationals 2008- Picture This: 2, Boomilever: 14
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by Bogoradwee »

walkingstyx wrote:Yeah, K'nex and final devices rarely mix well. Also, you might want to try increasing the weight at the bottom to increase the duration. It won't change the period, but it will give it more inertia and decrease the damping factor. You could also try pulling it back a greater angle to start with. Thirdly, when you build it with wood use a bearing or lots of lubricant or something else to decrease friction.
Is the K'nex part only in reference to pendulums? B/c I made a sand thing involving spinning spoons, and the K'nex work wonderfully. It's a standardized unit and it's very pretty and colorful lol
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Btw, if you see me in IRC chat, I'm Exothermic
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2010: See above.
2011: Regionals- 3rd WIDI, 3rd Optics, 3rd Fossils, 3rd overall States- 4th WIDI
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by Gooblah »

Few other quick questions:

1) Would one be allowed a calculator, if an irregular period (as invariably would happen) existed for counting purposes?
2) How would one measure tenths of a second with a pendulum? It seems like one would be just guessing at some point...
Events: Remote Sensing, Chem. Lab, It's About Time, Dynamic Planet, Mission Possible, Env. Chem. The latter two I found out I had to do 4 weeks before Regionals. Fun, fun, fun.
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by Bogoradwee »

seeing as i haven't tried a pendulum, i can't entirely answer your pendulum question, but i can imagine that they could have attached some thing that the pendulum's path would line up with and it could have markings, allowing specific regions to be specific tenths of seconds.
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Btw, if you see me in IRC chat, I'm Exothermic
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2010: See above.
2011: Regionals- 3rd WIDI, 3rd Optics, 3rd Fossils, 3rd overall States- 4th WIDI
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by Gooblah »

Bogoradwee wrote:seeing as i haven't tried a pendulum, i can't entirely answer your pendulum question, but i can imagine that they could have attached some thing that the pendulum's path would line up with and it could have markings, allowing specific regions to be specific tenths of seconds.
That's what I was thinking, but considering the angle changes every time the pendulum completes a period...i guess it could be possible to remember the starting angle and then calculate from there....
Events: Remote Sensing, Chem. Lab, It's About Time, Dynamic Planet, Mission Possible, Env. Chem. The latter two I found out I had to do 4 weeks before Regionals. Fun, fun, fun.
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by Primate »

Gooblah wrote:1) Would one be allowed a calculator, if an irregular period (as invariably would happen) existed for counting purposes?
Nope, you're not allowed to use a calculator at all for the first part of the competition. It's really dumb in my opinion--if you can use an electronic balance for a water clock, why can't you use a four-function calculator for the pendulum? It's not that difficult to just multiply it out, though, in the minute you get between launches. Just make sure you double check.

Now, the first year I did this event, I neglected to read the rules where it said you couldn't use a calculator for Part I. And apparently so did the event supervisors at regionals, so I got away with using it. Ironically, this year, the regionals guy was even worse. The test said "only four-function calculators allowed" (and this is one of the few events where you can use a graphing calculator), but when I told him he could have cared less. He forgot to impound watches, too, until I reminded him...
Gooblah wrote:2) How would one measure tenths of a second with a pendulum? It seems like one would be just guessing at some point...
Yeah, it is. You can get pretty accurate, though, because of the way period is measured. Say you've got a pendulum with a period of exactly one second. (It's a little unrealistic to calibrate something so precisely, but it would be about 10 inches long.) That means that the outswing is half a second, and the backswing is half a second. You can easily subdivide these in half, because you can see if it's passed the equilibrium position or not.

That's an error of .25s at most, which isn't bad at all for the last four trials. For the first trial, you might want to use a pendulum with a period of half a second, which means your error would be around .125s. Conservatively, We'll say the average error is somewhere around .2 seconds per trial, except for the first. Scoring that yields (1 * .4) + (2 * .3) + (2 * .2) + (2 * .1) + (2 * .1) = 1.8, giving you a score of 48.2. That's a win at regionals.
Bogoradwee wrote:seeing as i haven't tried a pendulum, i can't entirely answer your pendulum question, but i can imagine that they could have attached some thing that the pendulum's path would line up with and it could have markings, allowing specific regions to be specific tenths of seconds.
You could definitely experiment with something like this, but I would say don't bother. You just won't have time to make such an intensive calculation in a minute. I wish you could bring a chart or something, but you'd have to bring one for each angle--that's like 45 of them. Spending some quality time with your pendulum will be much more beneficial in the long run. You'd be surprised how accurate you can be once you get to know it.
events 2012 gravity vehicle, robot arm, thermodynamics, tps
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by genesys »

i am very confused with all of this its about time can you please help me as in today with all of this i really need to paass the tests!!!!
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by Sir_L_Jenkins »

Unfortunately, it takes time to master time. Unless you have a fancy ocarina, you may be out of luck.

However, if you're looking for some quick resources, wikipedia's good for quick binder making, and maybe some physics review of some mechanics. Otherwise just look at the topics in the rules and search around for that stuff. The official SO site also has some decent resources
*Ahem*
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by walkingstyx »

genesys: please do not troll. Even if it were possible for several anonymous strangers who post irregularly to prepare you in a single day for an event that requires intensive studying, it would not be nearly as effective as you actually going out and learning information yourself. Additionally, the members of this forum have already complied with your request as much as possible with the creation of the wiki, which is displayed prominently at the top of your screen. Please keep in mind that all forum posts should have a legitimate purpose. Shouting in large red lettering has no possible purpose but to annoy others.
Nationals 2010- Astronomy: 4, Physics Lab: 4, Picture This: 4, It's About Time: 10, Optics: 2
Nationals 2009- Picture This: 4, It's About Time: 8, Astronomy: 9
Nationals 2008- Picture This: 2, Boomilever: 14
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Re: It's About Time C

Post by Bogoradwee »

Sir_L_Jenkins wrote:Unfortunately, it takes time to master time. Unless you have a fancy ocarina, you may be out of luck.

However, if you're looking for some quick resources, wikipedia's good for quick binder making, and maybe some physics review of some mechanics. Otherwise just look at the topics in the rules and search around for that stuff. The official SO site also has some decent resources
1. you sir, have just been awarded one internet.
2. the official SO site is VERY helpful.
Science Olympiad: Guessing and BSing our way to victory!
Btw, if you see me in IRC chat, I'm Exothermic
2009: I don't remember/ not very noteworthy.
2010: See above.
2011: Regionals- 3rd WIDI, 3rd Optics, 3rd Fossils, 3rd overall States- 4th WIDI
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