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It's all a question of how well he knows his binder. If he really knows all the information inside, then the binder is just a safety blanket and it doesn't actually matter how big it is or how long it takes to flip through it. If he has a general idea of all the information inside and knows exactly where it is, then the size of the binder will only make a slight difference, and will probably actually improve his placing because there will be more information inside. If he doesn't know the information or where it is the binder, then he has a much bigger problem and needs to fix that before worrying about the size of his binder.
That being said, my partner and I always use laptops. You can magnify pictures and don't have to spend money on colored ink for the DSOs and spectra. You can put in a lot more information in case you get thrown a curve ball and need to search through an entire textbook for something you didn't expect to need to know.
So, laptops definitely have advantages, but as long as your friend knows what's in his binder, ctrl-f is not one of them.

Anybody have a value for the Mass of the Milky Way Galaxy? and mass/age/size of halo of M82 Cigar Galaxy?

pjgscioisamazing wrote:Anybody have a value for the Mass of the Milky Way Galaxy? and mass/age/size of halo of M82 Cigar Galaxy?

Several sources say the Milky Way mass is 5.8 × 10^11 M☉, but I think that only consists of 120 kly radius from the center of MWG, but I don't know a more accurate number.
Also, I don't know whether it is possible to find the mass of the halo? I'd be interested in how you could possibly find that.

andrewbji wrote:

pjgscioisamazing wrote:Anybody have a value for the Mass of the Milky Way Galaxy? and mass/age/size of halo of M82 Cigar Galaxy?

Several sources say the Milky Way mass is 5.8 × 10^11 M☉, but I think that only consists of 120 kly radius from the center of MWG, but I don't know a more accurate number.
Also, I don't know whether it is possible to find the mass of the halo? I'd be interested in how you could possibly find that.

I upped my researching, and I found this number, 1.9 Trillion SOlar Masses, for the total mass of the Milky Way (Halo and Dark Matter included), and around 200 Billion Solar Masses for the Visible Disk

I am somewhat confused about your question about the halo of m82. I don't think it has a halo at all. I haven't seen a reference to its halo in the literature, and it's a starburst because it was gravitationally disturbed by another galaxy recently. Considering how much the rest of the galaxy was distorted, I don't think the halo survived, and since it takes an extremely long time to form a new halo, M82 should not have a halo.

walkingstyx wrote:I am somewhat confused about your question about the halo of m82. I don't think it has a halo at all. I haven't seen a reference to its halo in the literature, and it's a starburst because it was gravitationally disturbed by another galaxy recently. Considering how much the rest of the galaxy was distorted, I don't think the halo survived, and since it takes an extremely long time to form a new halo, M82 should not have a halo.

Okay, I figured taht the halo didn't exist, as I have seen nothing about it, but it's always good to be sure just in case. Still haven't found anything about mass or age of M82 though

Hey, I just want to say that the Astronomy test was very impressive; easily the single best test I have seen at a Science Olympiad competition. I think most teams would agree that it was a very difficult test but that the questions were both interesting and meaningful. Thanks.

By the way, congratulations to the New York team that won the event. (we took 2nd)

I foudn the event to be a great event. I thought most of the questions were great. It was an event that really shows who knows their stuff. My partner and I didn't finish, thought we did relatively poorly, and somehow got 5th!

How was the test like? Was there anything it focused on a lot on?

E Edgar wrote:Hey, I just want to say that the Astronomy test was very impressive; easily the single best test I have seen at a Science Olympiad competition. I think most teams would agree that it was a very difficult test but that the questions were both interesting and meaningful. Thanks.

By the way, congratulations to the New York team that won the event. (we took 2nd)

My friend was one of the kids on the winning team (ridiculously smart kid I must say), maybe I'll force him to register here and comment on the test, but he thought it was really good as well.

Congrats on Second as well, thats no easy feat.