Can't Judge A Powder B

[bernard]

[jodidavis]

Hi!
Can anyone recommend a good battery conductivity tester to use for this event? I'm not sure I'm looking at the right things online- lots of aquarium, pool, and hot tub devices pop up.
Thanks!

[Oly4Life]

Hi!
Can anyone recommend a good battery conductivity tester to use for this event? I'm not sure I'm looking at the right things online- lots of aquarium, pool, and hot tub devices pop up.
Thanks!

[hide]If you want, there's a way to make one at home; it's cost-effective and it works well as long as you have enough of the powder dissolved in water. If not, there are some pretty good ones on Amazon.[/hide]

[jaspattack]

https://www.flinnsci.com/flinn-conducti ... er/ap1493/ These are the ones we used when I competed. They're unfortunately not cheap (this is what you get for buying from science supply stores)--I'm sure there's cheaper options out there but you need to make sure that they use a 9V or less battery because that's what's specified in the rules. It really wouldn't be difficult to make one yourself if you have the right tools and bits but not everyone is interested in doing that, so.

EDIT: You'll be tempted to buy the United Scientific one that pops up on Amazon right away, because it looks almost the same and is 10 dollars cheaper, but don't. It uses a 12V battery instead of a 9V one so it's not allowed. Event supervisors probably won't check, but you don't want to take the risk and potentially get hurt because of it.

[derpymonkey]

What lab equipment are we allowed to bring to the competitions? Is there any equipment that I really should bring? And is the substance going to be out of a specific list of powders or are they going to be any powder?

[derpymonkey]

What lab equipment are we allowed to bring to the competitions? Is there any equipment that I really should bring? And is the substance going to be out of a specific list of powders or are they going to be any powder?

Hey there, welcome to Scioly.org! Have you downloaded the official rules manual for this season? There's a list of “recommended” lab equipment that you should bring on page B78, although “recommended” is really the wrong word because the Can't Judge a Power rules also explicitly state that you're not allowed to bring items outside of that list or else you may face a penalty.

There isn't a fixed list of powders—instead, you're meant to focus on collecting data about the powder you're given. Can't Judge a Powder isn't exactly my forte, but from my knowledge about how tournaments are usually run, it may help to practice with powders commonly found in science classrooms. Tournaments will most likely give you something that can be easily purchased from a scientific supply store because more uncommon and pricier powders are simply not affordable to buy for all teams.

Hope this helps!

[derpymonkey]

What lab equipment are we allowed to bring to the competitions? Is there any equipment that I really should bring? And is the substance going to be out of a specific list of powders or are they going to be any powder?

Hey there, welcome to Scioly.org! Have you downloaded the official rules manual for this season? There's a list of “recommended” lab equipment that you should bring on page B78, although “recommended” is really the wrong word because the Can't Judge a Power rules also explicitly state that you're not allowed to bring items outside of that list or else you may face a penalty.

There isn't a fixed list of powders—instead, you're meant to focus on collecting data about the powder you're given. Can't Judge a Powder isn't exactly my forte, but from my knowledge about how tournaments are usually run, it may help to practice with powders commonly found in science classrooms. Tournaments will most likely give you something that can be easily purchased from a scientific supply store because more uncommon and pricier powders are simply not affordable to buy for all teams.

Hope this helps!

To add on (as someone who is going to be supervising CJAP this weekend!) I would also recommend practicing with household powders. Remember that according to the rules it has to be a pure substance so nothing like, uh, powdered laundry detergent or something. Some powders you might find in your cabinets like flour, cream of tartar (AKA potassium bitartrate), cornstarch, or baking soda are good to practice with.

At the end of the day, the identity of the powder doesn't matter. Like gz said, it's about collecting data on whatever powder you're given. One thing that some teams may do is come up with a list of tests they always do and practice doing those until they can do them quickly and efficiently. You don't have a ton of time to collect data, so you need to work fast. Get familiar with how to write good observations and you'll go far.

[SPP SciO]

[/quote]

To add on (as someone who is going to be supervising CJAP this weekend!) I would also recommend practicing with household powders. Remember that according to the rules it has to be a pure substance so nothing like, uh, powdered laundry detergent or something. Some powders you might find in your cabinets like flour, cream of tartar (AKA potassium bitartrate), cornstarch, or baking soda are good to practice with.

[/quote]

In 3.a. it does say that any combination of substances is permissible, so I thought just about any type of powder/mixture was fair game for this event, as long as it's the same for all teams

[jaspattack]

In 3.a. it does say that any combination of substances is permissible, so I thought just about any type of powder/mixture was fair game for this event, as long as it's the same for all teams

You're right, that's my bad! In past versions of the rules it was specified that the substance had to be pure, I must have missed that they updated it for this season. This is why you always read the rules carefully when they update them for a new season.

[drcubbin]

We all know Crime Busters has a list of powders that can be used and I recommend all competitors play around with all of these along with water, NaOH & HCl to see what reactions they can find, but does anyone who has supervised this event have a list they use? Or is it just any of the Crime Buster powders?