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ScienceOlympian wrote:For the 2014-2015 year NOT next season(2013-2014).

...and I'm asking whether Circuit Lab is going to rotate out with Shock Value in 2014-2015.

mrburrito wrote: You're not supposed to talk too much with event supervisors, right?

Why would you think that? There are a lot of event supervisors, including myself, that are very active on this forum and happy to chat with you.

sjwon3789 wrote:

ScienceOlympian wrote:For the 2014-2015 year NOT next season(2013-2014).

...and I'm asking whether Circuit Lab is going to rotate out with Shock Value in 2014-2015.

Most likely yes. We try to keep the 'paired' events in sync with each other.

I had a horrible time at States in Keep the Heat. I tested the device 20 times prior to the competition, and when I got to the State competition, I realized that my cotton balls were wet with water from the testing. AND, my proctor said towels and bandannas were commercial insulation. I remember feeling super mad, since they should've described what commercial insulation was more clearly. Then, I used my formula and I predicted it to be 70 Celsius, but the towels were wet with COOL water so it resulted in a temperature of 48 Celsius... Then I was the only one who studied, and my partner did barely anything, so we did like 40 out of the 50 questions on the test...We ended up getting 17th out of 24...Pretty bad...Considering I worked on Keep the Heat the most. But I learned a lot of Thermodynamics, and that is what SciOly is about. This post is my story and I hope (for the people going to Nationals for Keep or Thermo) that this doesn't happen to you.

ScienceOlympian wrote:I had a horrible time at States in Keep the Heat. I tested the device 20 times prior to the competition, and when I got to the State competition, I realized that my cotton balls were wet with water from the testing. AND, my proctor said towels and bandannas were commercial insulation. I remember feeling super mad, since they should've described what commercial insulation was more clearly. Then, I used my formula and I predicted it to be 70 Celsius, but the towels were wet with COOL water so it resulted in a temperature of 48 Celsius... Then I was the only one who studied, and my partner did barely anything, so we did like 40 out of the 50 questions on the test...We ended up getting 17th out of 24...Pretty bad...Considering I worked on Keep the Heat the most. But I learned a lot of Thermodynamics, and that is what SciOly is about. This post is my story and I hope (for the people going to Nationals for Keep or Thermo) that this doesn't happen to you.

I remember when my adviser was getting hot water for my box and when he was pouring it into the beaker (the beaker was in the box first because he didn't want to insert it afterwards), he spilled it...this happened 2 days before regionals and I had to redo it. I fortunately got 4th place.

sjwon3789 wrote:

ScienceOlympian wrote:I had a horrible time at States in Keep the Heat. I tested the device 20 times prior to the competition, and when I got to the State competition, I realized that my cotton balls were wet with water from the testing. AND, my proctor said towels and bandannas were commercial insulation. I remember feeling super mad, since they should've described what commercial insulation was more clearly. Then, I used my formula and I predicted it to be 70 Celsius, but the towels were wet with COOL water so it resulted in a temperature of 48 Celsius... Then I was the only one who studied, and my partner did barely anything, so we did like 40 out of the 50 questions on the test...We ended up getting 17th out of 24...Pretty bad...Considering I worked on Keep the Heat the most. But I learned a lot of Thermodynamics, and that is what SciOly is about. This post is my story and I hope (for the people going to Nationals for Keep or Thermo) that this doesn't happen to you.

I remember when my adviser was getting hot water for my box and when he was pouring it into the beaker (the beaker was in the box first because he didn't want to insert it afterwards), he spilled it...this happened 2 days before regionals and I had to redo it. I fortunately got 4th place.

The team who did Keep the Heat for Regionals (they quit) got 4th place, but only got 20/50 questions right on the test...

For the teams going to nationals, how many degrees off is your prediction?

Robertchan99 wrote:For the teams going to nationals, how many degrees off is your prediction?

Well, my team didn't get to go to Nationals this year; however, we did last year. Last year, (Div B) I got 8th place with about + or - 1 degree. This year, I hoped to medal (if we made it, which we didn't), and so my prediction was + or - .3 degrees--usually less, though. I hope that this helps!

Could anyone explain the change in the temperature difference between two objects not in thermal equilibrium over time? For instance, if it took 10 minutes to reduce the temperature difference between two objects to 10 degrees Kelvin from 15 degrees Kelvin, how long would it take to reduce the difference to 5 degrees Kelvin? I know this isn't linear, so I was wondering if a half-life type approach would work.

You're right, it is similar to a half-life. This is covered by Newton's law of cooling, which states that the rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings, according to wikipedia. So if the rate of change in temperature is proportional to the current temperature difference, that works out to an exponential relationship between temperature difference and time.