Scioly.org

Discussion for Helicopter Egg Drop B

http://newyorkscioly.org/SOPages/Helico ... Drop12.pdf

It is a trial event in New York

Are contestants allowed to set the rotor spinning as they drop it?

I have a few questions before I start building.
What is considered a "blade?"
How many blades can we have?
What should the blades be made out of?
If I can get a response as soon as possible that would be grate

FYI, this will in all likelihood be a real, full event for division B next year.

I'll be running this event, but I'm concerned about putting middle school kids 5 meters in the air to drop their helicopters. I don't want to put them that high up on a normal ladder, and the middle school that hosts the competition (and I imagine many other middle schools) don't have an enclosed ladder or platform. I'll have to have them drop their devices off of the bleachers, but then I can imagine many helicopters crashing into the wall or the bleachers.

I also have my doubts about the ability of teams to construct a helicopter that can save the egg. A large egg weighs about 60 grams, which is a lot to ask from an unpowered (or even powered) helicopter. However, I haven't heard results from any competitions so far. Have teams at other competitions been successful?

blue cobra wrote:I'll be running this event, but I'm concerned about putting middle school kids 5 meters in the air to drop their helicopters. I don't want to put them that high up on a normal ladder, and the middle school that hosts the competition (and I imagine many other middle schools) don't have an enclosed ladder or platform. I'll have to have them drop their devices off of the bleachers, but then I can imagine many helicopters crashing into the wall or the bleachers.

I also have my doubts about the ability of teams to construct a helicopter that can save the egg. A large egg weighs about 60 grams, which is a lot to ask from an unpowered (or even powered) helicopter. However, I haven't heard results from any competitions so far. Have teams at other competitions been successful?

I too would be extremely concerned about putting kids up on a 15+ foot ladder, but I haven't heard this be too much of a concern in the past. Egg drop of various varieties has been an event basically since Science Olympiad was founded, and they generally reach heights much greater than 5m. The two common locations for doing this are stairwells and bleachers in gyms. They've worked pretty well in the past, but your concerns about the egg crashing into the walls sounds well-founded. I'd love to hear if that is actually a problem. Also, not having seen the event run anywhere, I'd love to hear what the success vs. breaking rate is. I would be very concerned if too many teams are breaking.

I was not in the gym as I had thought, the tournament supervisor had a stairwell set up for us that worked nicely. As for success, 2 out of 7 teams had eggs that survived. I forgot to check, but I believe that the final ranking went in order of times (as in there was no helicopter that fell slower than a helicopter whose egg survived, yet still failed). Most of my concerns for this event are gone after seeing how teams actually did.

There are a couple things that were brought up, however. There are no clear tiers. It says that teams with construction violations will be ranked after those with none, and those whose egg cracked will be ranked after those that survive, but where would I put a team with construction violations and an intact egg vs. a team that's in spec but broke their egg? I would imagine the penalty for construction violations should be more severe than that for a broken egg, but the 4 possibilities are not laid out in the rules (egg survival yes/no, construction yes/no).

I also had a team that clearly attempted to make a device that would spin, but when they actually released it their blades didn't turn, so it was just a parachute. Perhaps there could be an operational definition for that parameter.

blue cobra wrote:where would I put a team with construction violations and an intact egg vs.

Since the rules present a conundrum, I would propose this solution:
1. Egg intact, no violations.
2. Egg broken, no violations.
3. Egg intact, violations.
4. Egg broken, violations.

The helicopter egg drop at my regionals was done out a second story window. There were some issues with the devices hitting the wall on the way down, in which case the team would get a redo if it affected their flight.

The main problem was that since it was done outside, the grass surface cushioned the fall of the egg. An event supervisor actually tossed a lone egg in a cup out the window and it didn't break.

FueL wrote:The helicopter egg drop at my regionals was done out a second story window. There were some issues with the devices hitting the wall on the way down, in which case the team would get a redo if it affected their flight.

The main problem was that since it was done outside, the grass surface cushioned the fall of the egg. An event supervisor actually tossed a lone egg in a cup out the window and it didn't break.

I heard a rumour that some team taped their egg in a cup to a straw hat