Official 2005 Clue Thread

[R.J.]

Here is what I think:

I can see FIRST taking elements from previous years, and they did say that The IR beacon thingy would be used more ofen.

The playing field being a baseball field would be so cool. Maybe you have to pitch the ball to your partner and they have to hit the ball. Then the opposing team has to find your ball with the IR Beacon and locate it before you get to thrid base. Just a random thought.

The Beatles idea is really intresting and that the clues do go hand in hand with one of their album covers.

Who knows what will happen? All the answers to our questions will come out on Jan. 8th!

[663.keith]

Originally Posted by Rocketboy

I don't know... I think the idea is almost logical. It wouldn't have to be major points like the fifty we could earn for the bar last year, but maybe a solid 10-20 points for having the ability to accomplish something during that short time period would be good.

Besides, the only reason nobody works harder on their autonomous programming is because they havent been given a significant reason to.

exactly, I think it would be great to have some points that could only be scored in autonomous mode. Other greater values could be gained during the regular time. Oh, and our team had plenty of troubles during autonomous mode during stack attack. At times we had to purposefully incur a penalty that would disable our autonomous mode because we had no way to turn our autonomous off.

I love the idea that alliances are picked during autonomous, this makes teams think on their feet, and it makes autonomous important, but not extremely vital to teams that don't have a successful autonomous mode

[Pin Man]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

No more drunken auto balance codes, or teams falling over trying to climb a bar.
The grammer of the riddle needs to better taken apart.
Follow the Beatles.

• The field will be flat

Wetzel

i must have missed something there... why do you think the field is flat...


and phrontist- looks like we are gonna be pulling all nighters this year to work with the AUTO mode... hmmmmmmmmm... This is gonna be craaaaaaaaaaaaazy...

[Karthik1]

Sorry I don't know that much about baseball can someone tell me what unassisted triple play means.

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by Pin Man

i must have missed something there... why do you think the field is flat...


and phrontist- looks like we are gonna be pulling all nighters this year to work with the AUTO mode... hmmmmmmmmm... This is gonna be craaaaaaaaaaaaazy...

Finally! Robots are, by definition, primarily autonomus.

[Bcahn836]

Originally Posted by Karthik1

Sorry I don't know that much about baseball can someone tell me what unassisted triple play means.

In a single play one person makes all three outs in a single inning of baseball.

Originally Posted by phrontist

Finally! Robots are, by definition, primarily autonomus.

True, but reducing the driving part of the competition significantly decreases overall excitement and public interest.

[Karthik1]

Originally Posted by Bcahn836

In a single play one person makes all three outs in a single inning of baseball.

Wow thats crazy and you say that only 12 ppl have ever done that.
hmp.. I think we are on to something.

[Pin Man]

Originally Posted by SilverStar

True, but reducing the driving part of the competition significantly decreases overall excitement and public interest.

I fully agree with you... Though AUTO mode is fun (especially when you have a working one), it takes a lot of chance for great driver plays which really attract the crowd...

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by Pat McCarthy

If one were to don amethyst colored glasses, would one be able to see IR beams?

Also, when scoring baseball, first base is position number three.

My thoughts.

No, not a chance. Our eyes can't see in the IR range, and adding filters wouldn't help matters.

[Pin Man]

this is going to be a looooooooooooooooooooooooong nine days... I can't wait to find out the game... I hope the human player is as much as involved as it was last year...

[pakrat]

Originally Posted by Charley

Well, last year, between one regional and the championships, our team had two partners not show up.

I mean, the whole team thing can certainly backfire...

But I wonder how strategy could work with switching alliances? That seems to be a central part of the game...

The problem with switching teams is that then, who wins?? Like, how do you determine what the winning final alliance?? Its just not reasonable

[pakrat]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Actually, IFI can define new channels for the robots to drive on, thus allowing four fields at a time at the Championship (and a fifth, if you count the NASA field in the pit--but I don't know how the reception works)

However, you do have a point in that controlling six robots means some fields would have to go in Atlanta. And that means more teams per division...and that means fewer matches per team...

Sorry if someone already said this, but there's plenty of room for more feilds or bigger feilds in atlanta, i think they could keep the same number of matches per team

[ahecht]

While wearing Amethyst colored glasses, John Neun gave George Burns the following riddle: "Look closely and you will see something between Pi, You and Me."

The inital letters is Pi, You, and Me, which are all capitalized in the clue, are PYM. PYM clearly stands for pyramid. Amethyst is a pyramid. Coincidence?

[Mr. Ivey]

I'm just going to throw out what went through my mind reading everything...

Amethyst colored glasses, are a rose/purpleish color. Now while yes John Lennen wore the rose colored glasses, what about Jimi Hendrix. Purple Haze... Hendrix was born in 1942 and died in 1970, and that is 28 years, but he died at 27, let's not look at that. 2 more years he would have been 30, following in our "3" pattern. For the past 2 years there has been autonomous operation in FIRST, and it was for 15 seconds. 2+28=30, so maybe 30 seconds of auton. That was just off the wall and completely random...

Next, both Burns and Nuen played at one point for the Red Stockings. On a technicallity... In the 1870s and 1880s the Boston Braves were called the Boston Red Stockings, but not as the Sox we know today. Burns played in 1928 and 29, and Nuen played in 30 and 31. Now the Boston Braves team was formed in 1871 as a National Association club, and in 1876 they joined the National League. The Boston Braves had many nicknames, prior to 1912 when they were offocially titeled the Boston Braves, they were called the Boston Red Stockings. They were in Boston as the Boston Braves from 1912 to 1952, then off to Milwaukee from 53 to 65, then on to Atlanta, where our Championship game is held. Right now the Atlanta Braves are the oldest continuosly operating sports franchise in North America, at 133 years. There is the number 3 again, and they moved to Atl in 53. In 1935 Babe Ruth wanted to become the Manager but it was given to Bob Quinn. The Braves have won 15 division championships, 21 pennant titles, and only 3 World Serries Championships, but have been in the world serries for the past 13 years. And if memory serves correct there are 3 "Braves" farm teams, yes I know there are more farm teams than 3 that the Atl. Braves use but I know of only 3 that carry the title of Braves. A lot of 3 in there... This is my over-justification of the possible importance of the number 3. And I'm an over the top braves fan...

Now between Pi and me and you. We usually think of Pi as just 3.14, let's just look at the digits 314. Now let's look at Burns and Nuen, let's look really closely. They both played on a Boston based team. The Boston Braves are National League, the Boston Red Sox are American League. 2 teams different divisions, same town... Now a really close look at 314. I might be going for a strech, but this is the big thing in common between Pi, me and you. When Neun was on the Braves 31' that was his last year for playing for the Braves. One of his team mates was Earl Sheely. Sheely had been in the Majors for 9 years, and this was his final year. Now to Burns and Pi. Burns played for the Boston Red Sox in for his second and final year in Boston in 1930, one of his team mates was Mike Menosky. This was Menosky's 9th and final year of playing in the majors. So we come to Earl Sheely and Mike Menosky, and what the devil do they have in common with Pi??? Both in their final year of playing in the majors, both had a slugging average of .314, the same numerals as in what we shorten Pi to. Now just to throw in the formula for slugging average... In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the power of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats. Total bases can be calculated from commonly used baseball statistics by using the formula TB = 1B + (2*2B) + (3*3B) + (4*HR).

The thing about purple haze is just to prove a point, I don't think the Beatles are really all important this year, or I could be totally wrong. 3 is an important number, and we shouldn't shorten Pi to just 3. Pi and 3 are seperate but both important to the play of this year, and somehow we will have a "Slugging Average" this year, and something about 2 teams in the same city in different divisions of some sort... Take what you want, I just looked a little closer.

Ivey