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Did this happen to anyone else? After we estimated we had to measure. About 60 of our points were from measuring and we got 12 points on estimation. I think it just comes down to who did just a couple points better estimation wise.

You need to know sig figs

Cjkowalcz wrote:Did this happen to anyone else? After we estimated we had to measure. About 60 of our points were from measuring and we got 12 points on estimation. I think it just comes down to who did just a couple points better estimation wise.

Yup, estimation is HARD. Our team did well but we didn't get the results so we can't confirm that they estimated well or not. Or measured well or not...

When I first read the rules I thought that it would be easier to get estimation points than it really is! Many of our estimations, even this late in the season, score zeros.

You got your scores? I didn't get my scores for anything, ever. ._.

Ugh, I guess that's what I have to study.

hscmom wrote:

Cjkowalcz wrote:Did this happen to anyone else? After we estimated we had to measure. About 60 of our points were from measuring and we got 12 points on estimation. I think it just comes down to who did just a couple points better estimation wise.

Yup, estimation is HARD. Our team did well but we didn't get the results so we can't confirm that they estimated well or not. Or measured well or not...

When I first read the rules I thought that it would be easier to get estimation points than it really is! Many of our estimations, even this late in the season, score zeros.

funny... we had the exact opposite situation. Measuring tools must really hate us or something because most of our points came from estimating. We're so unskilled that we're epicly skilled. Or we just have awful luck.

In the rules, it says that time is one of the units that could be in competition. So far, I have never seen a competition with this. Can someone give me an example of a time question that might pop up?

-274degreesC wrote:In the rules, it says that time is one of the units that could be in competition. So far, I have never seen a competition with this. Can someone give me an example of a time question that might pop up?

Estimate the time it takes for (given object) to fall (given distance).

For example, a 1cm cube falling 2 meters. This question was at the Bay Area Regionals.

-274degreesC wrote:In the rules, it says that time is one of the units that could be in competition. So far, I have never seen a competition with this. Can someone give me an example of a time question that might pop up?

That's probably because time is, along with temperature, harder to prepare activities for. I've been stretched to find things, myself. A few ideas...
-as said above, time for an object to fall
-time for some machine to work, turn, or do its thing (you'd see the parts in order to estimate)
-time for a reaction to run to completion
...stuff like that.

Cjkowalcz wrote:Did this happen to anyone else? After we estimated we had to measure. About 60 of our points were from measuring and we got 12 points on estimation. I think it just comes down to who did just a couple points better estimation wise.

From my experience, this is the general trend at both competitive and relatively noncompetitive tournaments.

I ran this event for the second time this season yesterday, and my general warning to all teams now is twofold. First, so many teams are clueless about how to measure to the first uncertain digit. Not doing so cripples your score. Additionally, not coming prepared for estimations is equally dangerous. Practice ballparking common objects in different units. In other words, know the approximate mass of a typical soup can in g, kg, and mg. I'd start there.

At regionals this weekend, there were about 5 mass/weight questions on the test, and as it is said in the rules, you aren't allowed to lift anything without permission (which was not granted). Without the density or volume of the object, how are you supposed to estimate mass w/out touching the object??

-274degreesC wrote:In the rules, it says that time is one of the units that could be in competition. So far, I have never seen a competition with this. Can someone give me an example of a time question that might pop up?

When I ran this event I included a station where it was required to measure the period of a pendulum with a stop watch and a station where it was required to measure the length of time for an animated gif to run. The period of a pendulum is constant independent of how high it is swinging. If you are asked to measure a period, remember, it is the time for a full cycle, back and forth.The best way to measure it accurately is to find the time for 10 cycles to complete and then divide the time for 10 cycles by 10.