Trajectory B/C

[andrewwski]

You can say that again. At the regionals my former team went to today, they had a ceiling of ~12-15 feet From my observations, let's just say it didn't go so well.

[colombiano]

The ceiling at our competition today was between 7-8 ft high. Which seemed very harsh as the far target was 6 meters away.

[starpug]

There should be a minimum ceiling height requirement for this event, if a competition can't get a place with a ceiling meeting these requirements the event should either not be held or held outside.

[colombiano]

That is true, but I would rather it be inside with a low ceiling, than outside with a strong wind.

[Avis_de-Incendia]

I'm not in trajectory, so I'm not too well informed on this- but for the intents and purposes of the event, shouldn't the ceiling be as high as possible?

Trajectory, in my opinion, is at the same level, as say, Wright Stuff.

As a side note, I would suggest to the Soinc higherups to put the "intents and purposes" of the event on the rules sheet.

That would clarify not only to the students, but to the proctors as to how to set it up better.

[starpug]

That is true, but I would rather it be inside with a low ceiling, than outside with a strong wind.

Well obviously if the choice between those two I would almost rather not have the event (or not have the event count towards team scores)

[andrewwski]

Yes, I think there should be a line in the rules that says something to the effect that "event supervisors should try to maximize the ceiling height" or let teams know if the ceiling is going to be unusually low.

The competition was held at my college where there are plenty of rooms with a high ceiling. In fact, Mousetrap Vehicle and Mission Possible were held in a room with a ~25 foot ceiling, and Trajectory was held in a hallway with a ~12 foot ceiling. Makes no sense to me - let's have the events that stay on the ground in the room with the high ceiling and do the event that has a flying projectile in the room with the low ceiling.

Plus they had the high target at probably ~120-150 cm high at ~5 meters (could have been 4, I didn't ask) and the far target 2 meters behind that. In order to get over the close target to the far target, you need a considerable arc. My old team had a device that could easily get within 10 cm each time but only ended up hitting one target area and taking 6th - all of the data they had taken was useless, as the projectile hit the ceiling every time. For one of their launches, they just set it to a lower angle and hoped it worked - and did land in the target area. I believe this was by actually going under the high target to get to the far target, which the judges allowed.

Sometimes people never cease to puzzle me...

[zyzzyva980]

Most of time Trajectory and Wright Stuff are in the same spot in our competitions. It would be ridiculous to have Trajectory in a hallway that's under 10 ft. high. However, if the ceiling is that low that is a disadvantage to all teams. I'd try to minimize the arc as much as possible for your machine (without sacrificing being able to hit the targets) This should not happen at a competition, but you must be prepared for anything.

The ceiling at our competition today was between 7-8 ft high. Which seemed very harsh as the far target was 6 meters away.

I hope Yao Ming wasn't participating.

[anon y mouse]

Since olympiad competitions are almost without fail held at schools, I would think the event should be hosted in a gym, which have ceilings about 20ft at minimum. Putting the even anywhere else is unreasonable - no team should have to prepare a device that can hit all points with a ceiling under 10ft, or even 15ft really.

[Draylon Fogg]

actually thats what keeps it a challenge so really they should keep it in the smaller spaces.