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I read the discussion about triggers that you guys have had before..but it didn't answer my question. My catapult's [picture attached] trigger is the white bar with holes every centimeter. When we pull a string attached to the bar, it releases the arm which shoots the golf ball.
The rules say that the device must fit within a 60X60 cube prior to all launches, but when we load the catapult to some of the lower holes the white "trigger arm" extends out of the box. Is this considered part of the device? or is it part of the trigger..and thus allowed to extend out of the 60X60 cube?

thepro wrote:I read the discussion about triggers that you guys have had before..but it didn't answer my question. My catapult's [picture attached] trigger is the white bar with holes every centimeter. When we pull a string attached to the bar, it releases the arm which shoots the golf ball.
The rules say that the device must fit within a 60X60 cube prior to all launches, but when we load the catapult to some of the lower holes the white "trigger arm" extends out of the box. Is this considered part of the device? or is it part of the trigger..and thus allowed to extend out of the 60X60 cube?

well to start a standard golf ball is not one this years allowed projectiles, you can use either a tennis ball, a racquetball, a ping pong ball, or a practice golf ball. So I hope that you are referring to a practice golf ball not an actual regulation one.

To answer your question I would consider that out of the box.

thepro wrote:I read the discussion about triggers that you guys have had before..but it didn't answer my question. My catapult's [picture attached] trigger is the white bar with holes every centimeter. When we pull a string attached to the bar, it releases the arm which shoots the golf ball.
The rules say that the device must fit within a 60X60 cube prior to all launches, but when we load the catapult to some of the lower holes the white "trigger arm" extends out of the box. Is this considered part of the device? or is it part of the trigger..and thus allowed to extend out of the 60X60 cube?

The picture isn't actually visible- for the [img] tags to work, the image has to be hosted at a static location, for which mail.google.com accounts unfortunately don't work.

The rules aren't particularly clear on this point. I'd say, if it's a fixed piece of your device- even if its only role is triggering the launch- most event supervisors will probably consider it part of the device, rather than part of the trigger, and insist that it fits within the 60 x 60 x 60 cube. If it's detachable and really only necessary to trigger the launch (i.e., if removed, the device could still be triggered by hand), then it would probably be considered part of the triggering mechanism.

From way back in the thread, but same principle here:

AlphaTauri wrote:IF you want, just to be safe, you could rig a spring or something of the like to pull the metal rod back into the 60cm cube after the launch (i.e. you pull the string and the metal rod backwards, firing the catapult, then you let go of the string and the spring pulls the rod back into the cube). I don't know how or if this is going to affect the rest of the catapult, so proceed carefully if you decide to follow my advice.

AlphaTauri wrote:From way back in the thread, but same principle here:

AlphaTauri wrote:IF you want, just to be safe, you could rig a spring or something of the like to pull the metal rod back into the 60cm cube after the launch (i.e. you pull the string and the metal rod backwards, firing the catapult, then you let go of the string and the spring pulls the rod back into the cube). I don't know how or if this is going to affect the rest of the catapult, so proceed carefully if you decide to follow my advice.

This is actually exactly what we have. Our launch mechanism involves a threaded rod (I described it a page or so back), and it's held in place by a thin bungee cord that springs it back to within the 60 x 60 x 60 cube after launch.

Does anyone know what the distances and heights were for the NY State Competition? The NY Science Olympiad website (http://www.newyorkscioly.org/SOPages/cstate2010.html) says the winning score was -50, so I'm curious what the targets were.

haven chuck wrote:Does anyone know what the distances and heights were for the NY State Competition? The NY Science Olympiad website (http://www.newyorkscioly.org/SOPages/cstate2010.html) says the winning score was -50, so I'm curious what the targets were.

The targets were at 9.5m (ground) and 3.5m, 1.4m up.

was that for b or c? sorry just answered my own question, c obviously

earthbot25 wrote:was that for b or c?

C division, B division does not have high targets over 1 meter, or 9.5 meters out I don't believe

Correct. B goes to 8 meters, up to 1 meter high.