Threshold for a competitive time

[__ks_ks__]

What would be considered a competitive time for a regional competition?

We currently are able to get our car going at 1 meter/s top.

[windu34]

What would be considered a competitive time for a regional competition?

We currently are able to get our car going at 1 meter/s top.

Depends on your regional. Id say top 3, your time should be at least 3 seconds or faster

[Bazinga+]

What would be considered a competitive time for a regional competition?

We currently are able to get our car going at 1 meter/s top.

Depends on your regional. Id say top 3, your time should be at least 3 seconds or faster

Which Regionals are you at?! I\d say most regionals as long as you have an accurate car (5-15 cm) and a time less than 5 you are practically guaranteed top 3. At states i'd say top 3 will have times of 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds and be accurate.

[windu34]

What would be considered a competitive time for a regional competition?

We currently are able to get our car going at 1 meter/s top.

Depends on your regional. Id say top 3, your time should be at least 3 seconds or faster

Which Regionals are you at?! I\d say most regionals as long as you have an accurate car (5-15 cm) and a time less than 5 you are practically guaranteed top 3. At states i'd say top 3 will have times of 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds and be accurate.

Maybe for your state, but Id disagree. Guaranteed top 3 will definitely require a time under 3 seconds and accuracy of about 0-15cm for most regionals/less competitive states

[Bazinga+]

Depends on your regional. Id say top 3, your time should be at least 3 seconds or faster

Which Regionals are you at?! I\d say most regionals as long as you have an accurate car (5-15 cm) and a time less than 5 you are practically guaranteed top 3. At states i'd say top 3 will have times of 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds and be accurate.

Maybe for your state, but Id disagree. Guaranteed top 3 will definitely require a time under 3 seconds and accuracy of about 0-15cm for most regionals/less competitive states

If thats so, then this events isn't very well designed. If top 3 at regionals are that good, that leaves very little room for improvement. Like if what you say is true, then most of the cars at states will have 2-3 sec times with 0-15 cm accuracy, so placements will be determined by luck for the most part. Now imagine nationals... 30 cars all faster than 2.5 cm. The winning car is most likely going to be some punk that has an insanely fast (<1 sec) but imprecise car and just gets lucky by getting right on the dot. Pretty sad imo.

[windu34]

Which Regionals are you at?! I\d say most regionals as long as you have an accurate car (5-15 cm) and a time less than 5 you are practically guaranteed top 3. At states i'd say top 3 will have times of 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds and be accurate.

Maybe for your state, but Id disagree. Guaranteed top 3 will definitely require a time under 3 seconds and accuracy of about 0-15cm for most regionals/less competitive states

If thats so, then this events isn't very well designed. If top 3 at regionals are that good, that leaves very little room for improvement. Like if what you say is true, then most of the cars at states will have 2-3 sec times with 0-15 cm accuracy, so placements will be determined by luck for the most part. Now imagine nationals... 30 cars all faster than 2.5 cm. The winning car is most likely going to be some punk that has an insanely fast (<1 sec) but imprecise car and just gets lucky by getting right on the dot. Pretty sad imo.

I would agree with everything you just said. I liked the 2008-2009 rules better where it came down to adjusting/predicting your time because it lead to more innovative designs rather than brushless motors and high precision rotary encoders

[mnoga]

We have scored approximately 34 and 32 at the Mira Loma and Troy invitationals finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Our car is running at about 2.7 seconds with typical accuracy of around 7 (on the 2nd run). We have been using a 4.8V battery pack with 4 cells. For the Silicon Valley regional (coming in March) we will reduce time by using either a 6.0 or 7.2V battery pack. We may switch up tires to reduce skid a bit also. We are hoping to score in the 20's.

[Bazinga+]

Just an interesting thing to note, assuming the highest coefficient of friction possible with the gym floor is about .5 (which is probably an over approximation imo). if you start speeding up at the maximum accelleration (without slipping) 1 meter before the starting line, and then start slowing down exactly at 8.5 meters, the time will be 1.27 second, so BEST POSSIBLE score is 12.7 (unless you power it with means other than direct action on the axle like a fan, but I'm not sure how well that would work). Doubt anyone will get close, but thought it was worth mentioning.

[A Person]

Just an interesting thing to note, assuming the highest coefficient of friction possible with the gym floor is about .5 (which is probably an over approximation imo). if you start speeding up at the maximum accelleration (without slipping) 1 meter before the starting line, and then start slowing down exactly at 8.5 meters, the time will be 1.27 second, so BEST POSSIBLE score is 12.7 (unless you power it with means other than direct action on the axle like a fan, but I'm not sure how well that would work). Doubt anyone will get close, but thought it was worth mentioning.

You know, there was that one guy asking about a fan for the car. With that, I assume he could get even faster, as silly as it is.

[iwonder]

Yeah, sure, there's a reason jet dragsters are incredibly fast, but I assume it's very very hard to make a highly efficient and symmetric/reversible way to move air that fast. He might be able to speed up to that point but he couldn't slow back down as fast.

What you need to do is devise a way to gain frictional force without increasing mass

-5 points to anyone whose description of their solution involves the term 'gravitational waves'.