27th Annual L. A. County Science Olympiad
Saturday, February 23, 2013Occidental College
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 4:33AM Q: The rules state that the device must use wings or blades. Is it ok for the device to have just one wing/blade in a spiral shape that causes rotation? (section: 3 / paragraph: a / sub-paragraph: / line: 1)
A: Yes, a single blade/rotor to use as long as it does not function as a parachute.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 1:24AM Q: Is perlite a permissible material as insulation? (Section: 3; Pargraph: a; Line: 2)
A: No, perlite is a foam and is not allowed.
Q: Is styrofoam considered to be a type of foam? (Section: 3; Pargraph: a; Line: 2)
A: Yes, styrofoam is a foam and not allowed in the devices.
Q: Whose thermometer is used for the final temperature since the supervisor must supply thermometers/probes and paragraph 4a iv says teams may utilize their own thermometers to measure the starting water temp in their beakers? (Section: 2; Paragraph: b; Line 2)
A: Supervisors provide the thermometer for final temperature measurement.
Q: Can teams be penalized for submitting a graph containing more than four data plots? (Section: 2; Paragraph: b; Line 1)
A: No.
Q: Are we allowed to have in our binder more than the required up to 4 graphs that will be handed in? (Section: 2; Paragraph: c; Line 15)
A: Yes
Q: Are calculators (programmable in particular) to be impounded? (Section: 2; Paragraph: d; Line 1)
A: Yes
Q: Is impound only for Part 1 of the event (device, tools, notes, plots, etc), or is the binder for Part 2 also to be impounded? (Section: 2; Paragraph: d; Line 1)
A: Rule 2.d. explicitly states that notes must be impounded. This includes note for both Part 1 and Part 2.
Q: Can duct tape be used? (Section: 3; Paragraph: a; Line 1)
A: Yes
Q: Can my team use duct tape completely around the outer edge of the lid to secure it? (Section: 3; Paragraph: a; Line 2)
A: Yes, General rule #2 applies: http://soinc.org/ethics_rules
Q: Should the students be allowed to place a separate "plug" or "cap" into or on the opening of the internal 250 mL beaker before closing the device? ( (Section: 3; Paragraph: b; Line 1)
A: Yes, teams may put a "plug" or "cap" on the opening of the internal beaker. Anything put in or around the beaker cannot physically modify the beaker nor the water in the beaker. The required hole for the probe must be at least 1.5 cm in diameter in any plug or cap. The device does not need to be all one physically attached unit.
Q: How late is the team allowed to insert a thermometer to measure starting temperature after the inside beaker was placed in the container? (Section: 4; Paragraph: a; Line 5)
A: This will be up to individual event supervisors, but it should happen as soon as possible so as to not violate the overall spirit of the problem.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 1:08AM Q: You've previously clarified that commercial insulation is anything sold/bought that has heat retention as one of the intended properties. Does this mean if the product packaging lists the features of the product, but doesn't mention heat retention that it can be used?
A: Commercial insulation definition: A previous FAQ states: “Commercial insulation is anything sold / bought that has heat retention as one of the intended properties”. To clarify further, the fundamental principle is that competitors need to use 'raw materials' to create their devices, not depend on the work some professional engineer put into designing something to insulate.
Items that would be considered ‘commercial insulation’ aren’t always necessarily labeled as such, since there are a lot of products engineered to be significantly better insulators than a normal person would be able to trivially create using the same raw materials. Likewise, just because someone has measured the ‘R Value’ of something and published it, doesn’t mean it’s inherently commercial insulation.
As with many things in Science Olympiad, there is a certain amount of subjectiveness that will fall upon the event supervisor in determining whether or not something is commercial insulation and it is impossible for us to list all possibilities. One key factor supervisors will use in determining this is how much effort the competitor put into modifying the 'raw material' to make the device. When in doubt, competitors should always err on the side of caution and select basic raw materials such as some of those listed below.
Some examples of materials that AREN’T considered commercial insulation:
Some examples of materials that ARE considered commercial insulation:
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 12:58AM Q: Just to be sure, including the starting task, final task, and task l (special task), up to a maximum of eleven tasks will be counted for points? (section: 3 / paragraph: b / sub-paragraph: ii / line: 1)
A: That is correct.
Q: For task b, does the egg have to be completely closed (snapped closed) or can the edges just be touching enough to keep the item contained? (section: 4 / paragraph: b / sub-paragraph: / line: 1)
A: The egg does not have to be completely snapped shut.
Q: Can the quarter used to initiate the first task fall on a series of platforms? (section: 4 / paragraph: a / sub-paragraph: / line: 1)
A: Yes, but make sure this is not one of the scorable tasks listed.
Q: Can you use a Lego gear-like wheel to build upon the gear portion of this device? It is stated that you have to have at least 3 homemade, non-electrical, non-commercial constructed gear. (section: 4 / paragraph: k / sub-paragraph: / line: 1)
A: No, the entire gear system must be made up of homemade, non-electrical, non-commercially constructed gears.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 12:56AM Q: Are potentiometers allowed on the mission possible device? (section: 3 / paragraph: c / sub-paragraph: / line: 1)
A: No, they are not allowed.