Optics B/C

[wlsguy]

But there will be:
A) A line from the laser to the target and
B) A barrier on that line,
correct?

No. This is one of the big change points.
My understanding:
The line is called the midline. It goes from the laser tip to the point where the laser hits the opposite wall.
This is not necessarily pointing to the target. The target point can be any point on the far wall.
A barrier will be somewhere between the laser tip and whatever point is chosen as the target point. (this will likely be an imaginary line)
For C division, 2 more barriers are placed wherever the supervisor wants them. Obviously the barrier setup must be the same for all teams.

The students get to use 1-5 mirrors to bounce the laser and try to hit the target

[Bogoradwee]

My understanding:
The line is called the midline. It goes from the laser tip to the point where the laser hits the opposite wall.
This is not necessarily pointing to the target. The target point can be any point on the far wall.
A barrier will be somewhere between the laser tip and whatever point is chosen as the target point. (this will likely be an imaginary line)
For C division, 2 more barriers are placed wherever the supervisor wants them. Obviously the barrier setup must be the same for all teams.

The students get to use 1-5 mirrors to bounce the laser and try to hit the target

If this is true, I'm going to want to build a laser shoot thing to practice, since it sounds a lot more complex. What are the dimensions for the laser shoot this year? I haven't been able to get my hands on a rules book yet, so I don't know them.

[chalker]

If this is true, I'm going to want to build a laser shoot thing to practice, since it sounds a lot more complex. What are the dimensions for the laser shoot this year? I haven't been able to get my hands on a rules book yet, so I don't know them.

Same as last year. There will be an updated 'how to build' doc soon on the soinc.org website.

[chalker]

We've posted some new files to the Optics page at soinc.org (http://soinc.org/optics_c) that might be of interest:

Optics Laser Shoot Surface instructions describes how to build the LSS and is slightly updated for this year to reflect the requirement that the mirrors don't have excess mounting material around them

Optics Tips & Tricks is an entirely new document that shows some of the 'specializations' I've made to the LSS to make it better, including wiring the laser to an AC adapter, locking it in place, and using calculator tape to mark the target locations. It also shows a simple way to make mirror covers (which are required now).

If anyone has any spare time, it might be nice to put some of these tips on the wiki.

[geekychic13]

Sooooo is all info i need to know covered on soinc.org (in the form of links)???? or do i need to go other places (and no, im not a first-year, i just didnt do this event last year.....)

[tuftedtitmouse12]

geekychic, get the rules...google everything you need to know, check out the wiki if you are hopelessly lost...and find an optics test book?

[chalker]

Sooooo is all info i need to know covered on soinc.org (in the form of links)???? or do i need to go other places (and no, im not a first-year, i just didnt do this event last year.....)

If you look at the links on soinc.org, you'll notice they all typically lead elsewhere on the internet... so yes, you should 'go to other places'.

[JSGandora]

The rules includes topics that generally do not require calculus unless you go really in depth like in undergrad topics. There definitely will be no calculus on the tests correct?

[smartkid222]

Generally, knowledge of calculus shouldn't be required for any science olympiad event. It depends on the person writing the test; he or she technically CAN put calculus beased questions on the test, but i've only heard of one instance in which a test required calculus.

[JSGandora]

but i've only heard of one instance in which a test required calculus.

One instance in Optics? Or some other event?

Also, why is spherical aberration reduced if many lenses are used? It seems unintuitive to me because each lens has some spherical aberration and it piles up (intuitively, although I may be wrong).