Technical Problem Solving C

[49ers]

there is nothing on the wiki!
someone needs to edit it and add stuff to it so this doesn't happen!

[winneratlife]

Okay, no offense to you or anyone, but I'm getting slightly annoyed by people saying "I'm new, tell me everything about this event." Look on the wiki and do preliminary research there, and try to find some tests from previous years. After getting a feel for the event and finding out what speficically you need help with, then we would be happy to help you.

I'm new, tell me everything about this event.

JK

So, I'd assume that the best way to study would be to split this into bio, chem, and physics, correct? And have one person each study one and split the last?

[Vizard007]

Hey guys, does anyone know where to find a list of "practice problems" for this event? Because I saw the event for Nats2010, but I don't think I'd be able to recreate that for my team. How do you guys prepare for this event? Because, at my school we're trying to recreate scenarios at comp. but I can't really find a way to (without spending a ton of money on materials, that is) Thanks for the advice/tips guys!

[hscmom]

In defense of those saying "I'm new, what must I know?" for this event, there truly is very little online to trudge through. My daughter (I'm a homeschool mom) just got put on the event a few days ago. Our team is small (10 students, C division) and when the regional schedule came out, there were many conflicts so most every team member got new event assignments. Yikes -- we've got an invitational in less than 4 weeks and it's about 7 weeks til regionals. Plus, with a young team (my daughter, at 16, is either the oldest or second oldest team member) we are truly lacking in kids that have had lots of math or science.

So, I am looking over the internet for "high school problem solving" and creating practice problems for my daughter (currently doing well in geometry and chemistry, fourth year in SO) and her partner (he's younger and it's his first year on the team -- only had through biology and is currently taking trig).

The main hints we have are to write EVERYTHING (assumptions, formulas, steps in the process) down. Rumor has it that our team (with two different kids on TPS last year) got all the right answers but were right in the middle of the rankings on this event because they did a poor job of writing down the processes and assumptions and such.

So, practice a lot, write it all down and scour the internet.

[Flavorflav]

Look up Practical Data Gathering, too. They are basically the same event.

[Flavorflav]

Does anybody have last year's national event and understand problem 3? It seems like air should stop entering the bottle when the atmospheric pressure is balanced by the downward pressure at the stopcock, which should be equal to the weight of the water divided by the area of the aperture. You can get the weight of the water but I don't see any way to get the area of the aperture, so I don't see how you can do this problem. And why are the bottles in an ice bath? I don't see how the temperature is relevant. Help!

[icefall5]

Sorry for this, but the previous posters are correct in that there is no information on the wiki. From what I understand from last year's thread, the whole point of this event is essentially to know everything and be able to work through problems using physics or, possibly but improbably, calculus. Is this a correct statement?

[starpug]

That is correct icefall5. I also believe the event has chemistry problems. In addition, TI sponsors the event so learning how to work with the Vernier probes might be to your advantage.