The rescheduled date for 2015 Physics Olympics is the following Saturday, with all times the same. For Spectral Scavenger Hunt, the submission deadline in rule #6 should now read Friday 27 February.
If you have any question regarding the Western Kentucky Physics Olympics please feel free to send an email to Richard Gelderman (Richard.Gelderman@wku.edu) who is organizing the event. In many cases we will post the answers to question here on this FAQ page for all interested participants.
Teams earn positive points for every distinctly different spectrum that is documented. There is not limit to the number of submitted spectra, each just has to be clearly distinct from every other submitted by that team.
The competition guidelines/rules give two examples of how cross polarized light can be analyzed to measure a property that is otherwise not easy to determine: the strain in a pressed plastic or the sugar concentration of a syrup. Each team constructs a polarimeter and practices making measurements with the plastic fork or sugar solutions with various concentrations. During the competition each team will have to perform one or both of those analytical methods to determine the strain or concentration for situations we establish.