Keep the Heat B/Thermodynamics C

[beastyeti]

Can someone give me an explanation on what happens during the testing for the devices?
(Including the plot making and the estimating etc...)
I'm quite confused...

[foreverphysics]

Well, quite honestly, it depends on the competition...some are nitpicky, others are fairer, and still others are just annoying. Like my State tournament, for example. That was screwed up...but we couldn't do anything, because it was all technically within the rules. My Regionals tournament, however, was much...better.
At Regionals, they took up the plots as they were giving us water.
At State, we had to predict the temperature of water using given information, what they called "dry labbing". Even though we still tested, that prediction was the first part of our test, and we had to turn in our plots as proof that we had it and we were not just completely making it up.
So it varies. Just...be prepared for all scenarios. Or at least, as many scenarios as possible.

[beastyeti]

Well, quite honestly, it depends on the competition...some are nitpicky, others are fairer, and still others are just annoying. Like my State tournament, for example. That was screwed up...but we couldn't do anything, because it was all technically within the rules. My Regionals tournament, however, was much...better.
At Regionals, they took up the plots as they were giving us water.
At State, we had to predict the temperature of water using given information, what they called "dry labbing". Even though we still tested, that prediction was the first part of our test, and we had to turn in our plots as proof that we had it and we were not just completely making it up.
So it varies. Just...be prepared for all scenarios. Or at least, as many scenarios as possible.

It says that we can make a maximum of 4 plots, but we are only given 2 beakers to test with (one outside and one inside device). How do we make 4? Sorry, I'm new .

[harryk]

You make the plots before competition, and bring them with you in order to predict the final temperature at competition.
So what will happen is you will arrive at the competition and in the event's room and what not. Depending on the competition you may take the written test before or after, or most likely during to testing of your device. For the device testing, they will tell you the starting temperature, volume of water, room temperature, and cooling time, which you will use to predict the final temperature with your plots. Then they will give you the hot water in both your beakers and put one of the, in your device and the other outside of it. After the allotted time, they will measure the temperatures of the two beakers and write them down for calculations for scoring.
The end

[chalker]

[quote="beastyeti"
It says that we can make a maximum of 4 plots, but we are only given 2 beakers to test with (one outside and one inside device). How do we make 4? Sorry, I'm new .[/quote]

If you go to the official Science Olympiad website (soinc.org) and go to the Optics Event page, you can download some example plots that should help you understand what you need to do.

[Immiscible]

Hey, I added a few things to my device that for some reason I keep thinking could be a problem even though I think the rules don't say anything against them - it's filled with cotton balls and I made a lid for the beaker out of aluminum foil that has a hole underneath the box's lid and also never closes. This foil is attached to the cotton balls with two small pieces of tape for fastening. None of the rules say anything against it but just to be sure, does it sound safe? Thanks in advance!

[foreverphysics]

As long as the tape is used for nothing but fastening, it's allowed.

[arod129]

It's that time of year again where those of us on the national rules committees start working on the rules for next year. As I've done in the past, I'm soliciting suggestions for rules changes for Keep the Heat / Thermodynamics. Please don't just say "I don't like XXXX", but rather make concrete suggestions (i.e. "Change XXX to YYYY" or "Remove ZZZZZZ" or "Add WWWWW"). I can't promise you we'll actually implement your ideas, but they will be noted and passed on to the rules committee for discussion.

For this event, I'd say standardizing the transfer of water would be nice. I liked the invitationals where the ES already had the water measured out (i.e. 50 ml in a baby food jar) and being heated rather than the invitational where they had a large volume of water being heated, and took 2 minutes to measure out exactly the volume neede for both beakers. In that time, the temp went from 71 to 55... Threw off my prediction completely.

In short, possibly outlining exactly what to do during the transfer so that teams can practice that way and it won't be open to interpretation.

The same thing happened to me^!! they should really change that...

[foreverphysics]

Happened to me too. It wasn't nice.

[harryk]

I still don't believe that the water is cooling as quickly as you suspect, if it did go from 71 to 55 in two minutes then according to newton's law of cooling then it would be 25 in just a little over 12 minutes, which doesn't seem to fit what I've been seeing in my tests(I'll post some exact data when I get home)