FIRST Lunacy!
In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, and the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, the FIRST Robotics Competition has a theme of "Lunacy" this year.
The game is intended to give the young robot-builders a taste of one of the difficulties of building a lunar vehicle: low friction. Because the moon has about 1/6 the gravity of earth, objects feel about 1/6 the normal force holding them up. Because the frictional force is proportional to the normal force, there is about 1/6 as much frictional force between an object and the surface of the moon as there would be on a similar surface on earth. To mimic this low friction, the playing field and wheels of the robots in this year's competition are smooth and slick.
This weekend is the Midwest Regional Competition in Chicago. The team that the physics club sponsors, team #648 is there competing (check out some photos of the robot during the build process). So far they are 4-2-1 in qualifying rounds. This afternoon is the championship competition. Good luck 648!!
1 comment:
QC Elite went 5-2-1 in the qualifying rounds, going 4-0-1 in their last 5 games.
They made it into the championship tournament 7th-seeded (of 8). They won the first of a best-of-three quarter-final round, but lost the next two. In the third game, they were ahead, but lost on a heart-stopping last-second shot.
This means they were eliminated from the tournament, but they can hold their head high, having done a great job of building a robot and competing!
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