Wind Power B/C

[chalker]

Chalker, I hate to ask this so far after the fact, but can you tell us the top 10 voltages/exam scores at Nationals last year? Those results are not on the "Test Packet" CD (that has the exams/scores from select National events) we bought from the Science Olympiad Store this year. Was there a specific reason those results were not disclosed this year?

Hmm.. strange they didn't include it. It's kinda a pain for me to extract the top ten the way you asked, since the 3 scores factor together. It also doesn't really tell you too much since the device scores are so dependent on the particular test setup. I can tell you that 1st place had a total score of 79 and 10th place had a 64.

[soyuppy]

Any will work since the voltmeter takes negligible current, but I normally use position B.
Position C is really position B with longer voltmeter leads, so positions B and C will give the same reading.
Position A could read slightly higher due to the very small voltage drop in the wire between the measurement points and the resistor terminals, but given the low resistance of the wire you would be hard pushed to see the difference.

Thanks. I have the hook clip lead on the volt-meter. So this mean I can just clip the CD lead+Resistor lead+volt meter lead all together, i.e. pos B. I don't need to have extra lead beyond the resistor.

Have you looked at the rules this year? We added a diagram that shows exactly this since there was so much confusion about it last year.

Yes, I did. But I didn't know if there's any difference in reading. So that's why I had to ask.

[soyuppy]

I'm sensing some more possible issues with blade and fan placement.
1. Fan has to be placed 15 cm or more above the table. So it will have to sit on something...and that something will have to be solid. i.e. I use paper rim box(school has a lot of those) and chances are the fan will be position back on the box. It won't sit by front edge due to stability issue on the fan.
2. The blade can be positioned at any distance toward the fan. Closer the better...may be. But the blade base platform can only goes as far as the block that the fan is sitting on. Most blade platform I've seen so far, like one shown on the soinc, has to be center around some larger base, PVC with 4 legs and a pole in the middle. The distance between legs will varies.

Here lies the problem, because of the blade base footing and the fan elevated block and since there's no requirement on min distance between blade and fan anymore, there will be size-able distance between blade and fan.
May be the 5 cm distance rule between blade and fan be re-instated with some clarifications

[chalker]

I'm sensing some more possible issues with blade and fan placement.
1. Fan has to be placed 15 cm or more above the table. So it will have to sit on something...and that something will have to be solid. i.e. I use paper rim box(school has a lot of those) and chances are the fan will be position back on the box. It won't sit by front edge due to stability issue on the fan.
2. The blade can be positioned at any distance toward the fan. Closer the better...may be. But the blade base platform can only goes as far as the block that the fan is sitting on. Most blade platform I've seen so far, like one shown on the soinc, has to be center around some larger base, PVC with 4 legs and a pole in the middle. The distance between legs will varies.

Here lies the problem, because of the blade base footing and the fan elevated block and since there's no requirement on min distance between blade and fan anymore, there will be size-able distance between blade and fan.
May be the 5 cm distance rule between blade and fan be re-instated with some clarifications

This is one of those things that we are deliberately vague on because we can't dictate the exact setup for all 400+ tournaments without raising the cost and causing issues with some supervisors. Because of the fact that all teams will be identically impacted by the setup, it provides a level playing field to everyone. In addition, part of the philosophy of SO building events is to be able to instill 'real world' challenges to a certain extent. A big part of engineering is dealing with potential variations and inconsistencies (i.e. the 'ground truth' is never exactly what we think it would be).

[hodor]

I have a quick question of the breakdown between the wind power TEST and LAB(voltage generated). Last year, it was based on an exponential equation based on how much voltage your wind blade generates while the test score remains constant. Is the breakdown still the same as last year or is it weighed differently.

[daydreamer0023]

I have a quick question of the breakdown between the wind power TEST and LAB(voltage generated). Last year, it was based on an exponential equation based on how much voltage your wind blade generates while the test score remains constant. Is the breakdown still the same as last year or is it weighed differently.

From this year's rules score is based off of voltage instead of by power. The high and low speeds account for 25% of the score each with your max voltage divided by the tournament's highest max voltage, instead of combined as it was last year. Written test score will account for 50% of the total score and will be scored as your score divided by the tournament's highest score. Hope this helps!

[calvin102111]

I have a quick question of the breakdown between the wind power TEST and LAB(voltage generated). Last year, it was based on an exponential equation based on how much voltage your wind blade generates while the test score remains constant. Is the breakdown still the same as last year or is it weighed differently.

It's weighted differently. Part C of Section 5 reads: 25 x (Part I low speed Max Voltage / Highest Part I low speed max voltage) + 25 x (Part I high speed Max Voltage / Highest Part I high speed Max voltage) + 50 x (Part II Score / highest part 2 score). Essentially, this makes it so that your final score is spread out more evenly across part I and Part II.

Example:
Your Low Speed - 500 millivolts
Your High Speed- 800 millivolts
Your test Score - 40/50
Low Speed (Max)- 600 millivolts
High Speed (Max)- 1000 millivolts
Highest Test Score- 48/50


25 x ( 0.5 / 0.6) + 25 x ( 0.8 / 1 ) + 50 x (40 / 48)

Your Final Score- 82.475

[hodor]

I have a quick question about the breakdown about the test and the performance of the blades. Last year, it was based on how much voltage your blades generate exponentially and the test was worth a very small percent. Is this breakdown still the same?

[calvin102111]

I have a quick question about the breakdown about the test and the performance of the blades. Last year, it was based on how much voltage your blades generate exponentially and the test was worth a very small percent. Is this breakdown still the same?

The point spread is more evenly spread between the performance of the blades and the test.

[calvin102111]

I have a quick question about the breakdown about the test and the performance of the blades. Last year, it was based on how much voltage your blades generate exponentially and the test was worth a very small percent. Is this breakdown still the same?

The points are more evenly spread between the performance of the blades and the test.

...Aaaand I clicked the quote button instead of the edit. Sorry for double post.