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Just a very quick question that one of my students asked me. The rules for hovercraft state that "Commercial batters, including rechargeable, not exceeding 9.0 V as labeled, may be used to energize the motors on the vehicle." My student asked me if that was limited to 9.0 V batter PER motor, or 9.0 V to power both motors. I am pretty confident that it is 9.0 V TOTAL for the vehicle, but told him I would check to be 100% certain.

Thanks

timothyre wrote:Just a very quick question that one of my students asked me. The rules for hovercraft state that "Commercial batters, including rechargeable, not exceeding 9.0 V as labeled, may be used to energize the motors on the vehicle." My student asked me if that was limited to 9.0 V batter PER motor, or 9.0 V to power both motors. I am pretty confident that it is 9.0 V TOTAL for the vehicle, but told him I would check to be 100% certain.

Thanks

The limitation is 9V per motor. At competitions last year, proctors made sure to check if batteries were run in series. It doesn't matter how many batteries per motor, the electromotive potential across the circuit has to be less or equal to 9.0V. There's no limit on amperage.

For the written exam, do sig figs and uncertainties matter?

geniusjohn5 wrote:For the written exam, do sig figs and uncertainties matter?

I believe the SOInc guidelines say that sig figs only matter for Division C, however, I guess its up to the test writers.

Hello fellow Olympians,
I was wondering if you can have two 8.4 volt batteries on the hovercraft to power the motors? I know the rules say you can’t have more than 9 volts in a battery.

Thanks!

Can you stand that amount of weight?

gcrewmc3 wrote:Hello fellow Olympians,
I was wondering if you can have two 8.4 volt batteries on the hovercraft to power the motors? I know the rules say you can’t have more than 9 volts in a battery.

Thanks!

Yes, we're doing that.

Just a quick clarification: Is the hovercraft this year(2017-2018) generally going to be a lot bigger than it was last year(2016-2017)?

geniusjohn5 wrote:Just a quick clarification: Is the hovercraft this year(2017-2018) generally going to be a lot bigger than it was last year(2016-2017)?

The increased the maximum dimensions to 40x40cm so it's reasonable to expect bigger devices than last year

This may sound like a really dumb question but I'm an extreme newbie to this event. Does the hovercraft float on the air-contained skirt or is there a little bit of plain open air beneath the skirt?