Sand Timer

[raina]

Could anybody please help me understand the designated sand timer? If I let the 1st scorable action knock down a sand timer which then knocks a marble to initiate the next scorable action and start timing. Is it ok? I'm confused a bit by the sentence "an action taking over 10 sec". What scenario this is trying to regulate?

Thanks in advance!

[jgrischow1]

Could anybody please help me understand the designated sand timer? If I let the 1st scorable action knock down a sand timer which then knocks a marble to initiate the next scorable action and start timing. Is it ok? I'm confused a bit by the sentence "an action taking over 10 sec". What scenario this is trying to regulate?

Thanks in advance!

I think to score points the sand timer must go on for at least 10 seconds and then initiate the next action. You get a one point bonus for every second it takes up to the target time. So ideally, if the target time is 120 seconds, you would have something like all your actions occurring really quickly, the sand timer initiating and taking as close to 120 as possible, then it triggering the final action, or something like that.

[knightmoves]

Could anybody please help me understand the designated sand timer? If I let the 1st scorable action knock down a sand timer which then knocks a marble to initiate the next scorable action and start timing. Is it ok? I'm confused a bit by the sentence "an action taking over 10 sec". What scenario this is trying to regulate?

Thanks in advance!

I think to score points the sand timer must go on for at least 10 seconds and then initiate the next action. You get a one point bonus for every second it takes up to the target time. So ideally, if the target time is 120 seconds, you would have something like all your actions occurring really quickly, the sand timer initiating and taking as close to 120 as possible, then it triggering the final action, or something like that.

It sounded as though raina was proposing to use a sand "egg timer" as a domino - a marble bumps the egg timer, which then bumps another marble.

That doesn't count! This action requires you to use the sand timer as an actual delay timer. For example, incoming marble opens up a flap that allows sand to flow out of a hopper. When enough sand has left the hopper, it lifts up in the air (because it's on a seesaw) and as it rises knocks in to the next marble. And then as jgrischow1 says, you'd adjust the amount of sand you start the hopper with in order to adjust the amount of time you delay for.

[raina]

Thanks. It makes more sense for the timer to change the TOT rather than just a domino but I have to say the rule could be more specific around this. For the sake of time, I may not have time to change my design. Hopefully, I can think of a way to include the timer as an adjuster of TOT next time.
Thanks,

[knightmoves]

The rule in question is 5c: "Participants may designate one sand timer, an action taking over 10 seconds, to be eligible for bonus points. This timer must not be one of the scoreable actions.
i. ...every full second the sand timer runs
ii. ...the timer must successfully initiate the next action
iii. ...team must demonstrate how this timer is adjusted to account for the increased target time

You should read the rules carefully for all scioly events, but Mission Possible is probably the one where you have to be most careful about reading the rules, because there are a lot of little details. Every word is important and has meaning in these event rules. My friend who did Mission Possible would read the rules with a notebook, and often write a paragraph of notes and/or draw a diagram for each sentence in the published rules.