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Incineroar999 wrote:I am kinda stressed about this event. Is there an easy way to determine whether the hair is dog/cat/human?

definitely look up pictures of each hair, study what the different medullas look like.

Anapolis wrote:

Incineroar999 wrote:I am kinda stressed about this event. Is there an easy way to determine whether the hair is dog/cat/human?

definitely look up pictures of each hair, study what the different medullas look like.

Or better yet, just borrow a microscope from your school's science department and look for yourself!

This is my first time participating and would greatly appreciate some help with the following questions:

1) Do you get the full 50 minutes for the event Or is it less than 50 minutes from the time one opens the packet?

2) For the regional do they indicate how many of the unknowns are mixtures? On some of the national I see it in the instructions but it is not consistent. If the instructions don't state it should is it acceptable ask the Event Supervisor?

3) For Chromatography do they provide the following:
a) Beakers depending on the number of chromatograms to be developed.
b) Scotch table to attach the Chromatograms
c) Staplers to staple papers or Chromatograms to the paper.

olympicNovice2 wrote:This is my first time participating and would greatly appreciate some help with the following questions:

1) Do you get the full 50 minutes for the event Or is it less than 50 minutes from the time one opens the packet?

2) For the regional do they indicate how many of the unknowns are mixtures? On some of the national I see it in the instructions but it is not consistent. If the instructions don't state it should is it acceptable ask the Event Supervisor?

3) For Chromatography do they provide the following:
a) Beakers depending on the number of chromatograms to be developed.
b) Scotch table to attach the Chromatograms
c) Staplers to staple papers or Chromatograms to the paper.

1) yes or no. Depends on how chatty/how many questions people have. Most of the time they will try to give you 50 minutes to start the test, but you have to remember the cleanup time
2) It says in the rules that tests must indicate if a power is a mixture. If this info isn't in the test and you ask, the supervisor will probably tell you.
3) a) no, most of the time they will only give you 1 to work with. It's recommended to bring beakers anyways.
b) sometimes, if they're nice. Try to figure out how to do chromatography without attaching the paper with tape
c)yes, definitely a yes. Sometimes they provide tape, but they will most certainly provide you something to attach the chromatography onto your paper.

olympicNovice2 wrote:This is my first time participating and would greatly appreciate some help with the following questions:

1) Do you get the full 50 minutes for the event Or is it less than 50 minutes from the time one opens the packet?

2) For the regional do they indicate how many of the unknowns are mixtures? On some of the national I see it in the instructions but it is not consistent. If the instructions don't state it should is it acceptable ask the Event Supervisor?

3) For Chromatography do they provide the following:
a) Beakers depending on the number of chromatograms to be developed.
b) Scotch table to attach the Chromatograms
c) Staplers to staple papers or Chromatograms to the paper.

1. From experience, you get closer to 40 min, between the ES explaining things and cleanup.
2. they should
3. a) no
b) sometimes
c) yes

CPScienceDude wrote:

Anapolis wrote:

Incineroar999 wrote:I am kinda stressed about this event. Is there an easy way to determine whether the hair is dog/cat/human?

definitely look up pictures of each hair, study what the different medullas look like.

Or better yet, just borrow a microscope from your school's science department and look for yourself!

on most of the tests i've taken, proctors have just given us pictures, but some proctors also might make u set up your own microscope slide so yeah you should practice that

Anapolis wrote:

CPScienceDude wrote:

Anapolis wrote: definitely look up pictures of each hair, study what the different medullas look like.

Or better yet, just borrow a microscope from your school's science department and look for yourself!

on most of the tests i've taken, proctors have just given us pictures, but some proctors also might make u set up your own microscope slide so yeah you should practice that

Complete opposite for me. At the 3 comps ive been to I've had to prepare the slide.

CPScienceDude wrote:

Anapolis wrote:

CPScienceDude wrote: Or better yet, just borrow a microscope from your school's science department and look for yourself!

on most of the tests i've taken, proctors have just given us pictures, but some proctors also might make u set up your own microscope slide so yeah you should practice that

Complete opposite for me. At the 3 comps ive been to I've had to prepare the slide.

They do recommend bringing microscope slides for the chemistry kits, so just be ready in case they do suddenly make you do microscope slides.

I'm curious as to how you guys differentiate between PETE and PVC. When it gets down to those 2 it gets kinda dicey. I know PETE is always clear, and on the CB sheet that the people before me made it said that PVC is never clear. I looked it up, though, and I found a lot of conflicting information about if PVC can be clear or not. For the sake of this, assume that you are given a hard, clear plastic that sinks in all the solutions. You get it between PVC and PETE. Where do you go from there?\
EDIT: No burn test results or common uses were given either.

CPScienceDude wrote:I'm curious as to how you guys differentiate between PETE and PVC. When it gets down to those 2 it gets kinda dicey. I know PETE is always clear, and on the CB sheet that the people before me made it said that PVC is never clear. I looked it up, though, and I found a lot of conflicting information about if PVC can be clear or not. For the sake of this, assume that you are given a hard, clear plastic that sinks in all the solutions. You get it between PVC and PETE. Where do you go from there?\
EDIT: No burn test results or common uses were given either.

Probably what the plastic is. If the plastic sample they give is like a water bottle cap, you couldn probably assume it’s PETE. If it’s a white piece of plastic that looks like a pipe, you could assume it’s PVC. Other than that, there really isn’t much more you could except guess.