Keep the Heat B/Thermodynamics C

[sciencegeek999]

At my invitationals that my school hosted, I was allowed to look at the materials that were in the first and second place keep the heat boxes.
THe best materials for filling was down but wool was also pretty good.

[Julian]

At my invitationals that my school hosted, I was allowed to look at the materials that were in the first and second place keep the heat boxes.
THe best materials for filling was down but wool was also pretty good.

Thanks for the useful observation. We have had very good results using a mixture of wool and down as well. Before everyone jumps on the down bandwagon though, I would like to mention that it is very difficult to compare two devices built by different teams or using different designs. For example, we don't know how compacted the material was, and if there were other confounding factors (e.g. quality of construction, operating skill, etc.) that could have influenced the winning device. Perhaps 3rd or 4th place utilized a better insulating material, but lost for other reasons. This is not that unusual, especially earlier in the season.

To add another ingredient to the discussion, for our upcoming Regional Tournament, my partner and I have been experimenting with different testing set ups we could face. Our state tends to be pretty good about following the rules, but based on how things went at our last invitational, we would like to be prepared and competent if the situation diverges from the norm. We've tried a few of the different arrangements people have mentioned on this thread, but are there any other specific cases either hypothetical or real that could possibly come up?

[foreverphysics]

GRAPHS?! We have to do GRAPHS?!
/me bangs head on table.
We don't even have a device yet. And of course, Regionals is in a week.

[Primate]

GRAPHS?! We have to do GRAPHS?!
/me bangs head on table.
We don't even have a device yet. And of course, Regionals is in a week.

Get temperature probes. Your school's bio/chem lab most likely has a couple. Saves you so much work.

[mrsteven]

As this is science olympiad, we NEVER falsify data. Oh no, this would be wrong. You know, looking at some others' numbers and using them would be totally inconceivably impossible in science olympiad.
especially in thermo and TPS.

just saying.


but in all seriousness, it helps alot. Do it if you want to have a hope of winning but if your time is really truly crunched then well.. ya

[Julian]

As this is science olympiad, we NEVER falsify data. Oh no, this would be wrong. You know, looking at some others' numbers and using them would be totally inconceivably impossible in science olympiad.
especially in thermo and TPS.

just saying.


but in all seriousness, it helps alot. Do it if you want to have a hope of winning but if your time is really truly crunched then well.. ya

This brings up a pretty good issue. Has there ever been any clarification about making up data in past events? I know in middle school, my partner and I have been guilty of making up data for Trajectory at the very last minute, but the rules don't really say specify, although I'm guessing it is implied. Rule 1 may be come into play here.

In the spirit of SO, I would encourage you to try to make your own graphs as soon as you get your device built and running. It would be pretty hard to predict your final temperature without some prior testing anyway. If you need any help or "inspiration", the official website has posted an example of how your plot should look. Here's the link. As you can see, once you have the data, which you should record when calibrating your device, it's a relatively simple 10-minutes max procedure to make a graph of it in Excel.

Edit: As Primate suggested, if you have access to LoggerPro probes, making the graphs becomes that much easier because all the data is automatically recorded and charted for you. Very little extra work is required.

[mrsteven]

I dont think so. There isn't a penalty in any event I've ever seen either that takes off points for radically different results than the testing plots (or equivalent for building events). Its not something I'd tell anyone to do normally because without prior testing you have literally no concept of its ability. If under a serious time crunch that you cannot spend an hour doing a couple of trials then under that situation its not 'ok' but understandable.

logger pro are extremely useful, but any thermometer is more than ok as long as you read them correctly.
has anyone thought of using vacuum insulated panels?

[JSGandora]

That would be very useful, but I would think it'd be quite expensive?

[Julian]

Especially considering the allowable materials this year, I don't think constructing a device that uses a vacuum for insulation is very feasible. Not only that, but you would have to construct it such that you could place the beaker inside without undoing the vacuum seal. Not to say it's impossible, but I think the time and effort required to pull it off could be put to better use elsewhere (say, studying for the written portion).

[sciencegeek999]

GRAPHS?! We have to do GRAPHS?!
/me bangs head on table.
We don't even have a device yet. And of course, Regionals is in a week.

Me, too. Except I have a little more time, regionals is March 3rd.
Then again, last time, I built the device and did the graph in 3 days:0