2024 Science Olympiad Tower: Div B Bonus Builds
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- In this video, I explore the possibility of using the bonus design rules for the Science Olympiad 2024 Division B Tower to see if it can be competitive with my benchmark non-bonus version.
I loved competing in the science Olympiad as a kid!
U are the savior of Wood build events
Thanks! I'm really just trying to help teams get a jump start on the process so they can focus their time on building and getting better throughout the season and be able to compete at the highest level if they want to put in the effort. Good luck this year!
You have definitely helped us! @@balsaengineering6686
Thank you so much for these videos, I'm joining Division B tower this season, so your videos helped a lot. Also, I have a question regarding the shape of the tower. I noticed all your builds had a trapezoidal prism shape, and I was wondering if a trapezoidal prism with a rectangular prism on top would be a more efficient build as I have seen online. Thank you!
I think you'll find that a single-shape trapezoidal prism will work best with these rules. My guess is the 2-part towers you are seeing online were from when the rules basically require that type of design (like in 2018 and probably next year). Good luck this season!
what's a first national tower score div b (estimate)?
My estimate for Div B national first place is around 4000
Hi, which one do you think is better, the bonus one or the non-bonus one?
I would focus on the non-bonus builds this year. While the bonus build might have the potential to match the non-bonus if everything goes perfectly, the risk is way too high IMHO. If your bonus tower fails at 14.75kg, that is a disaster. It doesn't matter much if your non-bonus tower fails at slightly lower than you expect. The only way to guarantee your bonus build holds 15kg is to over-design it to hold 17+ kg and pre-test to 15kg, and then it will not be competitive with the best non-bonus towers.
@@balsaengineering6686 ok, thank you
Hi, I was wandering about placing in Towers. Last year when I took bridge I placed 10th place in a national invitational with a 2700 score and 9th place in my regionals with a 3200 score I was wandering what the benchmark score for Towers would be to place in national invitationals, regionals, and whether it is much lower or higher than previous Bridge scores.
Hi! It's really hard to know for sure, but I would say for highly competitive competitions, expect scores in the 3500-4000 range for the top 10 for Div B, and for Division C, 3000-3500 actual efficiency which means with the 1.25 log multiplier, that would mean scores of ~3700-4400. Good luck this season!
Daughter is competing in this years Div C. Would you be willing to share the 3D CAD file & STL files for both non-bonus and bonus fixtures?
Hi! I have links to all the STL files for both jigs in the description of the Introduction video: ua-cam.com/video/ECcz3T6fzPg/v-deo.html I generally don't share the actual CAD files as anyone who is skilled enough to use those could easily make their own from scratch which is a good exercise as well. Good luck to your daughter this season!
If you don't mind, what kind of 3D printer did you use for the jig? I'm have trouble trying to print out on the one I have access to right now.
I have a Lulzbot TAZ6 printer I've been using for all of these jigs. I know some folks have had luck with other, much less expensive printers as well. Good luck!
You are an awesome youtuber and you are really helping me with Science Olympiad. Thank you so much! :)
Thank you so much for your kind feedback! Good luck to you and your team this season!
Thanks for the video. Can you please let me know where I can get/order the 3D jig ?
I have links in the description of the Intro video for all the STL files for all the jigs parts: ua-cam.com/video/ECcz3T6fzPg/v-deo.html Hopefully you can print them directly or have a friend do it. If not, there are online services that will print STL files for you, but you'll have to research that on your own as I don't have any experience with that. Good luck!
Also, do you think that the science olympiad kits for tower are necessary?
I don't know of any kits available for tower and I definitely wouldn't recommend them even if they were. This event requires a lot of material optimization and balancing to do well, so you'll need access to a lot more material than you'll actually use for the final tower. I would recommend buying sheets of balsa for the legs and cross member and cutting your own strips to get exactly what you need
Is there a specific reason you generally choose square designs rather than triangular ones?
Back in 2017 when the rules were essentially the same, our team did some investigation with 3-leg towers. We were never able to get them to the same level of performance as the 4-leg versions. Remember, with 3 legs, each one needs to hold 33% more weight and your cross-members need to be longer/stronger/heavier, so it's not so simple in thinking it will be lighter/better. Also, with square cross section legs, with a 3-leg tower, you are not going to have flat surfaces on all sides to glue your cross-members. With all that being said, I generally recommend just sticking with the easier to build 4-leg designs and focus on material optimization. For a super-high performing Div B tower, you should be able to get close to 4g and hold over 14kg. That should be your benchmark. If you can beat that with a 3-leg design, I encourage you to go for it!
@@balsaengineering6686 Thank you for responding! This clears up my confusion.
Hi, I was wondering if you think if it is possible to replicate these designs without using the jigs since I don't have access to a 3D printer
Hi! Yes, it's definitely possible to build these without a 3d printed jig. You will definitely want to build some kind of assembly jig though, that is almost a requirement to make a great tower. Back in 2017, the rules were almost identical and we didn't have access to a 3d printer, so we made a jig out of wood, copper pipe, and some misc parts. Basically, use anything you can to make it so you can lean 2 pre-build sides of the tower up for the final cross-section assembly. You basically build 2 sides flat on graph paper first and then stand them up on a jig of some kind and complete the rest. If you reach out to me at mklinger at comcast dot net, I can share a couple pictures of the jig we used back then to give you some ideas if you want. Good luck!
How do you do that? I tried but was directed to the comcast website. Do I have to sign in?
@@parvchikani8913 I meant just send me an email at that address and I'll email you back the pics with some notes
Ahhh, that makes much more sense. Sorry for the inconvenience but thank you for your very quick response.
Hi, I have a question regarding the jig. How did you make a jig without a 3d printer, and what did it look like? i’m assuming the jig would require smooth sides?
also, how should you measure the measurements for the jig?
@@allisonhuang9589 Hi! If you reach out to me at mklinger at comcast dot net, I can send you a couple pictures of the jig we used in 2017 which was not 3d printed. We were able to do really well with that, so it's definitely not required to have a 3d printed jig, but it takes a bit of work to create one from scratch. The dimensions for the jig, 3d printed or not, come directly from what the rules require. In this case, the important ones are it has to span the 20cm square hole and needs to be >50cm tall (for Div B)
@@balsaengineering6686 how do you decide how wide to do it at the top? The "1-inch nominal eye outside diameter" eyebolt has to fit, obviously. But other than that, how do you decide how wide you would make your tower at the top?
@@daisyspeaks7479 It's a bit of a compromise and there is no one correct answer. You want the legs to be as vertical as possible, which would mean as close to 5cm as possible (accounting for the leg width, so the loading block fits), but the wider you make it, the more material in cross-bracing you need. If you go with something small, like 2.5cm, it uses less material, but then the legs are at a slightly steeper angle. I chose 4cm as a nice compromise, but feel free to experiment a bit yourself
@@balsaengineering6686 Makes sense, thank you! This is very helpful!
what are the dimensions of the wood?
I would recommend first watching my Notes video: ua-cam.com/video/6jSlhXZORMs/v-deo.html so you can more easily interpret my notebook pages and then you can freeze the video on any of my builds to see the details of the material (like at 1:08 and 4:01 in this video)
thanks! the video was very useful