2014 Physics Olympics

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Fight

Overview

The WKU Department of Physics & Astronomy invites high schools to send teams of four to compete in the 2014 Western Kentucky Physics Olympics. This half-day competition consists of a pentathlon of challenging problem-solving activities that reward teamwork, communication and creativity. The 2014 event will be held Saturday, February 22 from 8:30 to 2:00 in Thompson Center, Central Wing on WKU's Bowling Green campus. 

The 2014 Physics Olympics competition will commence with two activities that involve competitors arriving at the event ready to compete with devices they have designed, constructed, and tested. The Roto Drop event requires each team to design and construct a helicopter type device to safely lower an egg when dropped from a fixed height. For Balloon Rockets each team constructs air-powered racing craft to self-propel along the track for the greatest distance. This year's "Calculation/ Communication Challenge" is titled Instrumental Navigation and will require each team to divide into pairs and cooperatively direct a flight to its desired destination. The "On-the-Spot Activity" and "Order-of-Magnitude Quiz" will remain cloaked in secrecy until the day of the event.

 

Do-Ahead Event: Roto Drop

The object of this Do-Ahead Project is to make an unpowered device that uses helicopter rotors to safely lower a raw grade-A large medium chicken egg to the floor from a height of 6 meters.

The device must use homemade rotor blades that spin around a central axis to slow the descent through the aerodynamic principles of a helicopter in unpowered, autorotation. The device cannot act like a parachute, glider, or balloon. Commercial rotor assemblies are not allowed.

Each team must mount or suspend a small cup from their device such that the cup, carrying the egg, will contact the floor before any other part of the device. No shock-absorbing feature may be incorporated into the device to cushion the egg.

The device must fit within a right cylinder 51.0 cm in diameter and 51.0 cm tall.

Prior to the start of the testing, the judges will give to each team a plastic sandwich bag and a raw grade-A medium chicken egg with the team name and competitor number marked.

The team shall seal the egg in the provided plastic bag with no trapped air pockets, place the sealed egg in the provided small cup, and present it to the judges for impound. No modifications are allowed after impound, except to mount and remove the sealed egg.

Judges will weigh and measure the impounded devices. The mass of the device will be measured with an accuracy of one gram. The dimensions of the device will be measured with an accuracy of one millimeter.

During the competition, two team members shall be designated to collect the team's device from impound and bring it to the launch area. One of those two will be responsible for launching the device. The other two members will be at the ground to collect their device after it lands. They are to remove the sealed egg from the cup and extract the egg from the plastic bag so the judge may analyze its survival. An egg broken during extraction is categorized as not having survived.

Timing for the descent starts when the device leaves the student's hands and runs until any part of the device touches the floor. Touching the wall, ceiling or other obstacles does not effect the measurement of the descent. Three judges shall each measure the descent to an accuracy of one-hundredth of a second. The median time will be used to determine the rankings.

Each team is allowed two timed descents, with the greatest time counting toward the rankings.

Rankings are determined by greatest descent time, with all teams with unbroken eggs ranked ahead of every team whose egg cracked such that wetness on the egg can be observed by the judges. Devices that do not meet the given specifications will be ranked below those teams whose egg does not survive. Ties will be broken in favor of more massive devices.

All contestants will ensure that their entry works through the application of physics principles and generally follows the spirit of the competition.

 

Plan-Ahead Event: Balloon Rockets

The event requires each team to demonstrate the performance of two types of balloon-powered craft constructed during the event - a single stage rocket and a two-stage rocket. Each team shall construct their balloon racers from the following list of supplies provided by the judges: four soda straws, ten balloons, four rubber bands, two sheets of cardstock, scissors, markers, and three one-foot lengths of masking tape. Teams are encouraged to come to the event with design plans for successful one- and two-stage balloon rockets; but all construction takes place during the event, using the provided materials.

The course is constructed from tautly stretched monofilament, extending roughly ten meters. For each race craft, the monofilament will be threaded through a plastic soda straw, to suspend and guide the race craft. Multiple, identical courses may exist, to efficiently serve numerous participants with parallel competition runs. Effort will be made to ensure that no course has an advantage over another.

The construction and competitions will be held in alternating phases. Initially, all competitors will work toward construction of a single stage rocket that can travel the greatest distance along the course. During the second phase, all teams get one competition run. This is followed be a brief period when teams can modify their craft and then the second run of the single-stage rocket competition. The same format repeats for a two-stage rocket.

The first fifteen minutes of each half of the competition is for construction, testing, and re-design of balloon powered race craft that can successfully travel the greatest distance along the course. Construction of the race craft may begin when the judges announce the start of the competition. Only the provided material may be used to construct the craft and absolutely no pre-construction is allowed. Teams will have a chance to perform limited tests of their craft and modify as needed. After the initial fifteen minutes, a round of competition will commence. Teams will be called in random order to compete and absolutely no modifications are permitted during this phase, neither prior to nor after the team's competition trial. After the first run, all teams will have five minutes to re-design and modify their craft, or even to construct a new craft. The second competition cycle will follow. This format occurs first for the single stage rocket and then again for the two-stage rocket.

Each rocket will be launched with the rearmost edge of its supporting straw at the indicated starting point on the string. Distance traveled will be measured from that point to the where the supporting straw's rearmost edge either comes to rest, or is judged to be when time expires.

Rankings will be determined by the sum of the maximum distance traveled for the single stage rocket and for the two-stage rocket. Ties will initially be broken in favor of the greatest distance travelled for all four runs summed together. The greatest distance on the two-stage course will be used as secondary tie-breaker.

All team members must wear splash proof safety goggles during the competition and shall ensure that their entry works through the application of physics principles and generally follows the spirit of the competition.

 

Communication/Calculation Challenge: Instrumental Navigation

Your team will be given basic information about molecular isomers then asked to divide into two groups. Two members of the team will calculate the speed and direction changes required for a "flight" to reach its destination. The remaining two team members will, with no additional communication beyond the be written instructions, do their best to renact the "flight" to the desired destination.

 

Impromptu Team Activity: Aeronautical Obstacle Course

Activity is the key word for this competition, with the goal being for each team to achieve the desired result as quickly as possible. The situation is designed to reward teamwork and common sense thinking as well as knowledge of physics. Every team will come away with smiles and good memories regardless of how well they master the particular challenge.

 

Order-of-Magnitude Quiz (also known as Fermi Questions)

Arrive at a reasonable approximation for the value of a complex situation with very little to no information available to directly compute the answer. In this quiz, the contestants will need to quickly make assumptions for values to use in simple calculations in order to arrive at the "correct" answer, stated as the power of ten of the number that fits the accepted value.

Teams will receive 7 questions to complete within 15 minutes. The teams can divide the work in any way they see fit, but only one answer per question per team will be accepted. Answers will be judged according to how many orders of magnitude the team's answer is from the judge's solution. The lowest score wins -- 0 points awarded for the answer accepted by the panel of judges, with 1 point scored per order of magnitude from the accepted value.

 

Examples of Order-of-Magnitude Quiz questions include:

 

How many electrons enter the starter motor when a new, full-sized pickup starts?

How many times would a tire of a Ford Taurus rotate when driven from NYC to LA?

Estimate the number of gallons of gasoline used annually by all the cars in the USA.