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Dynamic Planet Test Exchange 2018
Past Threads: 2013 (Glaciers), 2014 (Glaciers), 2015 (Oceanography), 2016 (Oceanography), 2017 (Tectonics)
Past Question Marathons: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

As a student, I'm mildly concerned about the rule change for how calculators must be "dedicated to computation" in the event.
Maybe I'm just slow on the news, but any ideas/knowledge as to how/why that wording is in the rules?
Thanks!

connerywood18 wrote:As a student, I'm mildly concerned about the rule change for how calculators must be "dedicated to computation" in the event.
Maybe I'm just slow on the news, but any ideas/knowledge as to how/why that wording is in the rules?
Thanks!

From what I saw, "dedication to computation" just means that the sole purpose of the calculator is to calculate. It's basically excluding things like phones, as they are not just for computing mathematical problems. So like a TI Calculator would fit under those guidelines.

Looking at the last National test, there's some...obscure material on there, certainly not stuff covered in the generally recommended resources (or clearly outlined subtopics in the rules, yikes). Does anybody know about gravity anomalies, the magnetism stuff tested, and anything else I'm forgetting? I only gave it a quick look.

Skink wrote:Looking at the last National test, there's some...obscure material on there, certainly not stuff covered in the generally recommended resources (or clearly outlined subtopics in the rules, yikes). Does anybody know about gravity anomalies, the magnetism stuff tested, and anything else I'm forgetting? I only gave it a quick look.

I learned a lot about gravity anomalies in the weeks before Nationals specifically in anticipation of it and other geophysics-type stuff showing up heavily, since I'd already heard from someone who posted on here that Enrica Quartini was going to be the ES (confirmed on Monday before the tournament when the list came out). I have no idea if I got the gravity anomaly questions correct, but I'm inclined to think I got at least some points since we finished 3rd. Unfortunately I learned next to nothing about magnetism, so we skipped most of that on the test (including the cross-section).

Skink wrote:Looking at the last National test, there's some...obscure material on there, certainly not stuff covered in the generally recommended resources (or clearly outlined subtopics in the rules, yikes). Does anybody know about gravity anomalies, the magnetism stuff tested, and anything else I'm forgetting? I only gave it a quick look.

I'll try to keep this as simple as possible, though I was never at the 2017 national tournament. An anomaly is simply anything that is off/unusual. So a gravity anomaly are parts of Earth that have unusual fields of gravity, when being compared to a featureless, flat Earth. Areas like mountain ranges cause the gravitational force to be more than what it would be on this made-up, featureless Earth. You'll want to look at maps about gravitational anomalies for more information. As for magnetism, I don't think I can help you there, as I have previously stated, I did not participate in the national tournament.

Do any of you know what is usually done at the timed stations for this event? Also, what does the Dynamic Planet wiki mean when it says: "as was the idea that America's movement came from the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon"?

RainbowMammoths wrote:Do any of you know what is usually done at the timed stations for this event?

While this event is rarely station-based despite substantial effort by the National Committee, if it is, the stations tend to be more application-based (though, not always, and written tests can certainly be heavily application-based).

Check out the FAQs on calculators... It would appear that graphing calculators are permitted. "With these calculators their functionality is limited to mathematical calculations or associated activities such as running simple computational programs or producing graphs."

Unome wrote:

RainbowMammoths wrote:Do any of you know what is usually done at the timed stations for this event?

While this event is rarely station-based despite substantial effort by the National Committee, if it is, the stations tend to be more application-based (though, not always, and written tests can certainly be heavily application-based).

Thanks!