Western Kentucky Physics Olympics

Check this page for answers to frequently asked questions about the 2018 Physics Olympics.

Question:
Students want to know if they will be allowed to reuse the same structure for the subsequent trials on the bomb shelter. Essentially they want to know if they can spend a lot of time making one shelter they feel is superior, or if building 4 shelters is part of the event as well and they will be forced to switch after between trials.

Answer:
There must be exactly four shelters, each used once and only once per trial. We don’t enforce that each member of the team contributes to the design or construction of their own shelter, but we insist that each member runs the testing for that one shelter during one of the four trials.

Additional Commentary:
This is a competition to protect the egg with a shelter that is both low mass and low volume. A successful shelter for the low drop height trial can be relatively lower volume and involve less toothpicks than the shelter required to protect and egg from a baseball dropped from over six feet high.

Successful shelters will act like crumple zones on a modern automobile. To “catch” the baseball requires absorbing its energy, which can only be done by using the energy to break toothpicks, or at least the bonds holding toothpicks together. It is highly unlikely that a successful shelter can be reused.

Question:
Can the straws be bent or twisted as part of the construction or do all the straws have to be straight sections?

Answer:
The construction of the Bomb Disposal Manipulator Arm can include crimping, bending, folding, and/or twisting of the straws. However, the straws cannot crimp further during the testing.