Technical Problem Solving C

[Mathdino]

Exactly what my team's doing. I think this year I might just start over with the thermo notes, with a huge emphasis on formulas, conversion factors, technical/mathy stuff like that with a little bit of vocab, and largely ignoring history, theories, general ideas, etc.

How bout Electrochem? Anyone find any really good resources for that yet? I'm taking high school chem this year so I've got that part covered, but most high schools don't/aren't able to teach electrochem what with all the equipment necessary. It's gonna be hard to set up practice labs in TPS this year.

EDIT: Neeeever mind I'm dumb. AP Chem covers it, as do most chemistry textbooks.

[sercle]

What did your guys' labs consist of? Ours was just a hypothetical situation on paper dealing with a galvanic cell, and calculating specific heats for the other part.

[Schrodingerscat]

What did your guys' labs consist of? Ours was just a hypothetical situation on paper dealing with a galvanic cell, and calculating specific heats for the other part.

We had a theoretical lab with electroplating, in addition to a lab where we were given a microwaved potato, a thermometer, and a timer to determine the constant in Newton's Law of Cooling.

[juveniledeli]

Yeah so I'm not really sure if this counts as what scioly isn't but I need some clarification on what technical problem solving really is. I've looked at the previous regionals test from last year and it has a whole bunch of stuff about wave frequency, I know that's not what we're gonna be tested on but is it gonna be something like that or something completely different? I get the whole idea with the calculator and easy data and I'm already looking into that but I guess what I'm actually trying to ask after this long and boring paragraph is what will I need to know how to do and know for the competition, thanks

[Skink]

You need a copy of the 2014 rules which lays out testable topics and subtopics quite clearly in section 3, a few of which are even mentioned above . There are several ways to obtain rules; the main one is directly from your coach. Additionally, you are advised against framing studying around old tests. That risks all sorts of problems.

[MastaMilo]

Are the rules posted somewhere on the internet

[iwonder]

No, that violates SO Inc. copyrights, they will never legally posted online. Your coach should have a copy of the rules that came with your team registration.

[computergeek3]

If I may, a question that came up: on a recent test, I was given a question asking to find pH of one of the cells of a galvanic cell given concentrations of ions and some other information that escapes me right now. How would one go about doing this? When I took a shot at it, I got a pH of 22.48

[Crazy Puny Man]

If I may, a question that came up: on a recent test, I was given a question asking to find pH of one of the cells of a galvanic cell given concentrations of ions and some other information that escapes me right now. How would one go about doing this? When I took a shot at it, I got a pH of 22.48

Not sure what exactly was available to you, but it sounds like either a conjugate acid/base or an H+/OH- ion is involved in this cell. Maybe...use the Nernst equation (given the actual cell potential) to solve for Q, then use the Q expression to solve for whatever species is controlling the pH, then go from there...?

[ichaelm]

Here's an interesting question that zero out of 20 teams got completely correct at CWRU yesterday:

For a general heat exchanger, consider the inlet temperature of chamber A to be T1A, the outlet temperature of chamber A to be T2A, the inlet temperature of chamber B to be T1B, and the outlet temperature of chamber B to be T2B. If T1A > T1B, is it possible that T2A < T2B? Why or why not?

Many teams had the right answer (yes), but none were close to an explanation as to why. Just thought I'd put it up here to challenge you guys and make sure I wasn't being unfair.