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Discussion for Solar System B.

Solar System Wiki
[wiki]2009 Test Exchange#Reach_for_the_Stars[/wiki]
2009 Thread

no you don't need to know anything at all.

-atmospheric and geologic characteristics of the planets and their satellites
-kepler's laws and newton's laws and maybe some other laws/theories?
-famous past astronomers and what they did
-comets, asteroids, meteors, Kuiper belt, oort cloud
-features of the sun

stuff like that i think. (i haven't actually done this event before)

A couple years ago, the NY State test was some basic questions about the planets and other parts of the solar system and then a section where you had to calculate the escape velocity for each of the planets and plot them on a graph. It was a very easy test.

If you are allowed a binder, couldn't you just put the escape velocities in the binder?

You can put down anything you want on your note sheet, but if the question asks you to show how you calculated it, it'll only be useful as confirmation that you got the right answer.

About resources - I have draft rules now and they state that students will be allowed one 8.5" x 11" two-sided sheet of paper. It can include images, graphics and text just like Reach for the Stars. Plus a basic calucator with square root function. That is that biggest change from that last time the event was run when you could have any resource that fit into a 12"x12"x3"space. As a coach I prefer the single page resource, It forces the kids to really know their stuff.

but why exactly would you need a calculator for a study event having to deal with space

To calculate...

You might need to find distances and stuff, or converting between units such as miles to AU's. You should always have a calculator with you if it mentions one in the rules just in case.

oh cause you know at first you might not think that you need a calculator though