Technical Problem Solving

General Advice

-Hopefully, if you're doing this event, it means you're a senior or you have taken both chemistry and physics before. You'll need a pretty strong understanding of the lab-related ideas in both courses - I'll give examples that I remember from 2011 and 2012 below. At the very least, you probably need to know how to use all of the formulas in the AP Chemistry and Physics C Mechanics free response formula sheets. Some math stuff may pop up too (google possible examples) such as estimating the number of balls in a jar or triangulation - http://scioly.org/wiki/2012_Test_Exchange#Technical_Problem_Solving has some good examples for math stuff.

-http://scioly.org/wiki/Technical_Problem_Solving : tips at the bottom are useful. Ignore everything else since it'll probably be outdated.

-Ask an officer for a test I used for states testing - definitely not necessarily will overlap with what you will see, but the analysis involved in some of the problems is similar.

-Don't stress out too much about the breadth of the content - since AB is so OP, you'll know more stuff than what others from other schools do, so it's a matter of mentality and generic review. If you don't have time, definitely spend it in preparation for other events. Definitely understand your partner's strengths and weaknesses.

States

-Expect a rather long test either in length or a select few very challenging problems. Don't bother working together and split stuff with your partner based on strengths. The material is really random at the states level.

-Expect a written test with maybe a lab station or two.

-What I remember:

2011: Wasn't hard, but really long and bs'ish. Only remember the following.

1) Gas law problem - graph pressure vs volume, recognize it's boyle's law. Explain how to use different materials to set up the experiment to collect the data and account for an outlier (probably had to do with the gas syringe)

2) Mechanics - drawing velocity v time based off of position v time. Know that motion detectors use sound waves and gather information by looking at the time between when it emits the sound waves and when it receives the "echo" back - there is not enough time between the two events if you have the moving object be too close to the detector, so there'd be error here. Actually used the exact problem in the state test.

3) Thermodynamics - q = mc*delta(T). Explain errors in data.

2012: Moderate length, really hard.

1) Mechanics again - know how to use the motion equations really well.

2) Two fluid mechanics questions - know what buoyant force is. I really doubt other fluid mechanics related stuff will ever appear.

3) Gravitational force - one planet revolves around the other and you have to figure out the orbital radius (of) and gravitational force acting on the moving planet based off of a distance v time graph. I can't remember exactly the question, but know your formulas for period and gravitational force as well as how to derive them (mv^2/r = Gmm/r^2). It was somewhat similar to the lab you do in physics class - ask a teacher for it if you don't recall it/haven't done it.

4) Circuits - normally, you find the equivalent resistance of a bunch of resistors in a diagram. Here, we had to figure out what that diagram was (completely from scratch) based on what the equivalent resistance would be if you took out one resistor or maybe multiple resistors.

5) Pendulum - calculated something based off of data we gathered with a stop watch and a lego-based pendulum that we could vary the length. Know the period of a pendulum formula.

Nationals

-Actually easier than states in 2011 and 2012. We have old nationals tests (2009 through 2011) - ask an officer for them!

-Expect only lab stations, timed or untimed. For time's sake, I'd suggest for each station, have one person carry it while the other double checks for errors - hence, know the strengths and weaknesses of each person!

2011: A bunch of short, lab stations. Needed to know calorimetry (mcdelta(T) again), triangulation, estimating the number of balls in a container, mechanics relating to force and impulse (I still have no clue how to do this one), some math stuff.

2012: Unexpectedly, completely based on three things that they mentioned on the NSO website: http://soinc.org/tech_prob_c. They had "Sample Station Exercise ___" for Beer's law/colorimetry, colligative properties, and a physics/force one. So if something like that appears again, know those topics really well!!