Hot Air Balloon

Description

Teams will build and fly a paper hot air balloon. The balloon will be constructed in advance of the competition.

Competition

Each team will bring to the competition a hot air balloon which will be impounded when the team arrives at the Olympiad. The balloon may be constructed only of paper (any type), transparent tape (no masking tape), and school glue. A metal wire, no thicker than coat hanger wire, may be used to support the air intake opening of the balloon. There are no limits to the dimensions of the balloon.

The balloon will be inflated with a hot-air paint-stripper gun for 5 minutes by the event judges, who will then let the balloon go. Timing will begin with release and end when the balloon is no longer in flight. Balloons will be ranked based on longest time of flight.

Note: Adult supervision is necessary for all test-runs of the balloon in advance of the competition, and sufficient adult supervision will be provided during the competition.

Other Information

Each team should bring a log book with them outlining the construction and testing of the balloon in preparation for the event. Dates and times should be noted in the book.  Data, data tables, and sketches will be typical entries. Information should be entered at the time noted in the book. Summarizing what was done hours, days or weeks after the actual experiment is very poor scientific practice.

(Logbook Example: October 17, 2005, 3:30 P.M. Today the glue we used melted the paper, so we’d better try something else tomorrow.)

Scoring

The lab books should be brought to Science Olympiad and will be collected before the Opening Ceremony. All lab books will be examined by a team of three people and scored (not ranked) on a scale of 1-10(high=10, low=1, no book=0). Teams will be ranked (1st place=10, 2nd place=9…) based on longest time of flight. Team score will be the sum of the ranking and lab book score.

Lab book scoring is not designed to be punitive. It is the hope and expectation of judges that all lab books receive a score of 10. There is no set or expected presentation format, except it should be clear to the judges that all work was performed by the competitors.