Solar Power(C) NYS Trial Event

[overdramatic]

Actually, now that I've looked, the coaches work shop that they had a while ago had a slide show, and its on the NY state site. On the slide show it says that they would remove the thermometer after taking the initial temperature.

We aren't allowed to put anything *in* the beaker, but would covering the beaker with black electrical tape within the five minutes that we have to setup be legal?

Oh and was the invitational that your team went to in stations or was it just a test. Personally, I'm hoping for a test. And if they had stations, did they have specific materials there that we would have to find the change in temperature, heat lost/gained or whatever?

[Glacierguy1]

I heard that it was just a test with a lot of thermodynamics, but I still haven't seen the test.

The black electrical tape seems like it would be legal as long as you can remove it afterwards.

[overdramatic]

Eh, it leaves a residue once you remove it so my coach is iffy on it.

We'll see. Anyone get a temperature increase of 10 degrees, or higher?

As of now, we're still testing variables, and don't have our all the components together. And we've got like a 6 degrees increase. I dunno if that's a lame increase, but I think its a good baseline increase to work off of.

[Glacierguy1]

With the shield on the lightbulb at 10cm from the device, we are getting about 7.5 consistently with a starting temp of 20-21 C

[Glacierguy1]

Ah, but it's a 80 cm cube. This means that diagonally, you really have quite a bit more than that--just about 138.564cm. That is how long your device can be, if a judge is going to go with the "it must fit intact" fake-rule-thingy.

This was quoted from the It's about time thread...

Is our imaginary 35 cm cube diagonal or 35 cm on a side?

[Flavorflav]

35 cm on a side.

[Glacierguy1]

Thanks.

Do you have any method for getting the heat to leave the device between test runs to make your results more accurate?

[overdramatic]

I guess it depends on the device and what you're using but we usually just end up waiting a bit and the only part of our device that really gets very hot is the beaker which we just douse in cold water when we're refilling it.

But anyways, we have a tentative increase of about 8 degrees at a height of 5 centimeters above the imaginary 35cm cube.

[baker]

If anyone has competed at invitational or regional. can you explain how this event is presented? Are the light bulbs already hanging for you? when do they tell you what the height of the bulb is. Can your device be 'as tall as 35 cm'? Can ya give any insight to this event?? Thanks.

[Primate]

If anyone has competed at invitational or regional. can you explain how this event is presented? Are the light bulbs already hanging for you? when do they tell you what the height of the bulb is. Can your device be 'as tall as 35 cm'? Can ya give any insight to this event?? Thanks.

Basically, when you walk into the room, the coordinator should have a couple light bulbs hanging at the appropriate distance. (They'll let you know what that distance is as soon as you walk in.) You then have time to set up your solar collector under the light.

And yes, your device should be 35 centimeters high. A 150 watt light bulb gives out a ridiculous amount of heat energy--the closer your beaker is, the more energy it'll gather.