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Thermodynamics B/C: Teams must construct an insulated device prior to the tournament that is designed to retain heat and complete a written test on thermodynamic concepts.

Thermodynamics Wiki

Thermodynamics Test Exchange 2018

Past Threads: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018

Past Question Marathons: 2018

If the mods don't mind I made a separate section to discuss the build as this portion should be more about questions on the testing portion. So excited for this year!

TheChiScientist wrote:If the mods don't mind I made a separate section to discuss the build as this portion should be more about questions on the testing portion. So excited for this year!

Looks like they didn't expand on the rules too much (I feel like those are mostly just clarifications on what the rules from last year entailed). Anyone got any clue why enthalpy is C div only though?

Could they just be trying to avoid an ES from giving poor Div. B competitors complex enthalpy problems?

TheChiScientist wrote:Could they just be trying to avoid an ES from giving poor Div. B competitors complex enthalpy problems?

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me because they allow the ideal gas law and the Carnot cycle. Oh well.

UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F wrote:

TheChiScientist wrote:Could they just be trying to avoid an ES from giving poor Div. B competitors complex enthalpy problems?

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me because they allow the ideal gas law and the Carnot cycle. Oh well.

Granted these year's rules seem to be more focused on the concepts of Thermo vs the actual number crunching.

Is it me or did they just make the event way easier

MattChina wrote:Is it me or did they just make the event way easier

The event is pretty much the same, no? They just added a cotton ball for the build and removed the outside beaker. For the test, they just explicitly outlined some thermodynamic processes that must be on tests. Item v (thermodynamics laws and processes) still leaves enough room for interpretation to include the subjects that weren't explicitly mentioned. It might've gotten easier for B division with the removal of entropy and enthalpy, but I think there's still a lot of wiggle space for interesting questions.

MattChina wrote:Is it me or did they just make the event way easier

I think the device calibration is a ton easier this year, but the test would probably be the same difficulty

Because the scoring is much less generous, I think Thermo is harder this year. The exponential nature of Newton's Law of Cooling means that students at the top could not only impact their own scores with slightly better devices but also greatly diminish others' scores. Each half degree really matters now, where they did not last year.