Towers B/C

[GhostPants_]

I don't know about the rest of you guys and girls, but this season of science olympiad is over for me. My state tournament ending a couple weeks ago and I managed to place 2nd in Towers with the help of this forum thread. For that, I would like to say thank you to everyone. Towers has been my most favorite event for this year and after coming home I looked at all of the balsa wood events for the last ten years. From my observations I have concluded that Towers will stay for the next year. My question is for all of you people who have participated in the balsa wood events; do the rules for the balsa wood events change during the second year of their cycle? Something that you guys could think about is if the rules for Bridges in 2014-2015 were different from the rules in 2015-2016.

there will be a three year cycle for towers

Is this confirmed?

[Balsa Man]

Welp, had my state competition today and I took the alternative spot so I built the tower for the team to compete with, and they broke it before they even competed, how unfortunate.

That's a real bummer, sorry to hear

Yeah, had a fun time though and that's what matters. Overall as a team we improved by 8 spots.

Yes, it is.
Well done.

[Random Human]

I don't know about the rest of you guys and girls, but this season of science olympiad is over for me. My state tournament ending a couple weeks ago and I managed to place 2nd in Towers with the help of this forum thread. For that, I would like to say thank you to everyone. Towers has been my most favorite event for this year and after coming home I looked at all of the balsa wood events for the last ten years. From my observations I have concluded that Towers will stay for the next year. My question is for all of you people who have participated in the balsa wood events; do the rules for the balsa wood events change during the second year of their cycle? Something that you guys could think about is if the rules for Bridges in 2014-2015 were different from the rules in 2015-2016.

there will be a three year cycle for towers

Is this confirmed?

From what I have heard, yes, Towers will be running from 2017-2019. If not it would be running from 2017-2018.

[vicsamemsuphob]

Hey new to this fourm. I need some tips for towers. I have a 6 brace tower that weighs 5.29 grams. Is there anyway I can cut it down to around 5 grams or so? the last tower i built was 4.88grams, held 12kilos, score was around 2400. The 5 gram tower I built is sturdier than the last one, due to the immense effort put into it it compared to the last one.

[dhdarren]

there will be a three year cycle for towers

Is this confirmed?

From what I have heard, yes, Towers will be running from 2017-2019. If not it would be running from 2017-2018.

So basically, it's not confirmed? Seems like all speculation, given that you haven't mentioned which source you've gotten this official information from.

[Balsa Man]

Hey new to this fourm. I need some tips for towers. I have a 6 brace tower that weighs 5.29 grams. Is there anyway I can cut it down to around 5 grams or so? the last tower i built was 4.88grams, held 12kilos, score was around 2400. The 5 gram tower I built is sturdier than the last one, due to the immense effort put into it it compared to the last one.

Welcome to Scioly! You've found what is, I believe, the most comprehensive assembly there is of specific information on the theory and practice of creating a competitive tower.

Getting to 2400, whether its a B or C tower, is a real achievement; well done. From here up, finding little gains gets much harder. I think any gains are going to have to be about wood selection; finding/using sticks that are... out toward the end of the bell curve- the very lightest that provide the required strength.

[dholdgreve]

Hey new to this fourm. I need some tips for towers. I have a 6 brace tower that weighs 5.29 grams. Is there anyway I can cut it down to around 5 grams or so? the last tower i built was 4.88grams, held 12kilos, score was around 2400. The 5 gram tower I built is sturdier than the last one, due to the immense effort put into it it compared to the last one.

You've worded your question in a way that indicates that you are wanting to trim an existing tower down, as opposed to modifying the design to reduce the mass of future towers. IMHO, it is very difficult to reduce the mass of an existing tower that is already extremely light. You may wish to take a nail file to the columns and round the corners slightly between the bracing nodes, but this won't take off a quarter of a gram... more like .05 grams at most, plus you are risking damage to what seems like an incredible structure already. To reduce to 5 grams I think you will need to start over and go with lighter material than was used in your existing tower... same design, just lighter.

[Raleway]

Hey new to this fourm. I need some tips for towers. I have a 6 brace tower that weighs 5.29 grams. Is there anyway I can cut it down to around 5 grams or so? the last tower i built was 4.88grams, held 12kilos, score was around 2400. The 5 gram tower I built is sturdier than the last one, due to the immense effort put into it it compared to the last one.

Welcome to the community! I think that tower design is maxed out already. If you are using a traditional 4 leg design, at 4.88 or 5 grams is super light. You can try cutting down mass by lowering mass of legs and compensating with more bracing but at that point it would be more and more susceptible to error. One design I saw at an invite that scored quite well with bonus that had around 20 sections but light density members all around. In addition, you should try going for the bonus! Adding on maybe one section to get to 5 grams and 14 kilo score or luckily to a maxed score of 15+2 kg nets a 3400 score which is stupendously nice. I don't know what type of bracing you are sporting with 6 sections whether it be standard X with 1/8 X 1/64 or some other design and I don't know your BS of legs. Using Euler's formula either specifically to get numbers or qualitatively to make adjustments will make each change supported by math and easier to make accurate changes. There are a whole lot of pages dedicated to BS vs bracing interval and all that. Another change could be glue- most teams use medium CA but if you want to get risky and work hard and also get a terribly stuffed nose, try thin CA but it'll be terrible to work with.

[Balsa Man]

I absolutely agree that trying to take weight off existing tower is just not a viable approach.
And yes, understanding and using 'the numbers', along with having and using wood that gets you to design/needed strengths, at the very lightest weight, is... pretty much the only path that might get you to where you want to be. At the weight you're already at, it is going to take some....much better than average wood. There's been some discussion of whether, when you get up....approaching a 3000 score the circle bonus pays off or not. Some of the very highest reported scores are from non-bonus designs. My personal take - and the approach the teams I'm working with are taking - is using the bonus.

[Random Human]

Is this confirmed?

From what I have heard, yes, Towers will be running from 2017-2019. If not it would be running from 2017-2018.

So basically, it's not confirmed? Seems like all speculation, given that you haven't mentioned which source you've gotten this official information from.

I've heard from many past coaches and friends that towers will be running from 2017-2019. Obviously, I'm not a national board member so I don't know for sure that that will happen. But that is all I know for now. The only thing I can guarantee you is that towers won't be running for 4 years and WILL come back next year.