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Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 4:11 pm
by AlphaTauri
I believe the official SO site (
http://soinc.org) has some practice tests from several years ago. However, the only one from nasa.gov (technically NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) is the 2005 Div B example and I understand that the site has been updated since 2005 and some of the answers are difficult or impossible to find now.
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 4:26 pm
by brobo
courtpeters24 wrote:i heard that the site this year is nasa.gov and i'm looking for some sample tests. does any one have any that i can try?
Try the
Test Exchange. If there are none there, then try the
2009 Test Exchange.
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 4:47 pm
by robotman
courtpeters24 wrote:i heard that the site this year is nasa.gov and i'm looking for some sample tests. does any one have any that i can try?
Compute This Wiki
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 7:48 pm
by zyzzyva980
robotman09 wrote:zyzzyva98 wrote:What was that about the italicized font? What I'm trying to say is: Say the test is about moon mass (hypothetically). If the test does not say you need to specify the link you found the data table information, the rules, while stating you must find everything at NASA.gov, does not say you need to state the link in the graph/data table. Thus, you can find the stuff you need at Wikipedia and nobody has to know. But it's better safe than sorry.
I happen to take offence to this.
For one this is highly against the spirit of the rules. As the rules state that all information
must come from Nasa.gov. Also if you have ever read the back cover of the rule book you would see that "Teams are expected to compete un tournament events with
honest effort to follow the rules and spirit of competition(paragraph 1.sentence 1),and "1.teams may not interpret the rules so that they have an unfair advantage over another team."(rule 1)
So basically your "idea" violates both of those rules.
The general idea of Compute this is find and interpret data found on the stated website (Nasa.gov) using Wikipedia or another source is just stupid and shows that you are lazy.
Okay, sorry it was just a suggestion. I have never used this tactic and probably never will, and I regret posting it on this site. My bad.

Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 4th, 2009, 3:28 pm
by AlphaTauri
robotman09 wrote:For one this is highly against the spirit of the rules. As the rules state that all information must come from Nasa.gov. Also if you have ever read the back cover of the rule book you would see that "Teams are expected to compete un tournament events with honest effort to follow the rules and spirit of competition(paragraph 1.sentence 1),and "1.teams may not interpret the rules so that they have an unfair advantage over another team."(rule 1)
What if you can't find the answer on nasa.gov (very unlikely, but possible depending on your search method) and use another site to look it up, then search for the answer on nasa.gov? Would that also be considered against the "spirit"? because I know that it's a pretty common tactic when you're really frustrated.
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 4th, 2009, 6:48 pm
by amerikestrel
AlphaTauri wrote:robotman09 wrote:For one this is highly against the spirit of the rules. As the rules state that all information must come from Nasa.gov. Also if you have ever read the back cover of the rule book you would see that "Teams are expected to compete un tournament events with honest effort to follow the rules and spirit of competition(paragraph 1.sentence 1),and "1.teams may not interpret the rules so that they have an unfair advantage over another team."(rule 1)
What if you can't find the answer on nasa.gov (very unlikely, but possible depending on your search method) and use another site to look it up, then search for the answer on nasa.gov? Would that also be considered against the "spirit"? because I know that it's a pretty common tactic when you're really frustrated.
I don't think that that would be wrong to do, because you're still getting the final answers from nasa. It's basically the same thing if you use a self-made website to store links, because you're using one website to find information on the other in both cases.
And anyway, you probably wouldn't get away with it if you used info from a different site, because you have to provide the URL when you answer the questions.
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 4th, 2009, 6:53 pm
by robotman
amerikestrel wrote:AlphaTauri wrote:robotman09 wrote:For one this is highly against the spirit of the rules. As the rules state that all information must come from Nasa.gov. Also if you have ever read the back cover of the rule book you would see that "Teams are expected to compete un tournament events with honest effort to follow the rules and spirit of competition(paragraph 1.sentence 1),and "1.teams may not interpret the rules so that they have an unfair advantage over another team."(rule 1)
What if you can't find the answer on nasa.gov (very unlikely, but possible depending on your search method) and use another site to look it up, then search for the answer on nasa.gov? Would that also be considered against the "spirit"? because I know that it's a pretty common tactic when you're really frustrated.
I don't think that that would be wrong to do, because you're still getting the final answers from nasa. It's basically the same thing if you use a self-made website to store links, because you're using one website to find information on the other in both cases.
And anyway, you probably wouldn't get away with it if you used info from a different site, because you have to provide the URL when you answer the questions.
it wouldn't technically be wrong but i think it would be a waste of time with the amount of ways to find info on Nasa.gov (advanced search in google, nasa searchbar etc.)
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 4th, 2009, 6:56 pm
by amerikestrel
robotman09 wrote:it wouldn't technically be wrong but i think it would be a waste of time with the amount of ways to find info on Nasa.gov (advanced search in google, nasa searchbar etc.)
What if you had no idea where the information is, and you can't find it with search because all the search terms you use have no results? If you find at least part of the answer on an external site, you could put that into the search box and find the info easily. It could save you a lot of time.
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 4th, 2009, 7:45 pm
by robotman
amerikestrel wrote:robotman09 wrote:it wouldn't technically be wrong but i think it would be a waste of time with the amount of ways to find info on Nasa.gov (advanced search in google, nasa searchbar etc.)
What if you had no idea where the information is, and you can't find it with search because all the search terms you use have no results? If you find at least part of the answer on an external site, you could put that into the search box and find the info easily. It could save you a lot of time.
It could save time it really would depend on the question and how you search
But I believe that as long as you find your final answers (the answer you write on the test or plot on a graph) on Nasa.gov, not Wikipedia or Billy-Bobs Astronomy Emporium it is in the spirit of the rules.
Re: Compute This B
Posted: December 6th, 2009, 11:13 am
by tclme elmo
For this event, is there a way to know what we're using, like Apple or Windows, etc? A Mac? A Dell?