One week ago, Cemetech Contest #10 drew to a close. It was one of our most popular contests so far, thanks to our own efforts within the community as well as a news article on ticalc.org and a mention on TI Calculator's Facebook page. We had about fourteen contestants, of whom six submitted complete entries in time for the deadline. All six showed a great deal of effort and dedication on the part of the programmers, and made our judging decisions pleasantly challenging. We also look forward to the eight programmers who weren't able to finish by the deadline completing their physics-related programs anyway; their programs look very promising.
Without further ado, our third, second, and first place winners, in that order! Recall that for this contest, we had four prizes (plus a few secret prizes) to offer: three TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition calculators and one TI-Nspire CX CAS, all generously provided by an anonymous benefactor. In third place place, Matrefeytontias wins third place and a TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition for his Axe entry, "Holefield". In Holefield, you are a space garbage collector who must use magnetism and gravity to throw garbage into black holes. The game teaches gravitational attraction and magnetic attraction/repulsion equations, but it earned third place because you can successfully play the game without needing to directly use the equations in question. Nevertheless, it is an excellent game, even in this beta form, and we eagerly await the finished product. Congratulations to Matrefeytontias for his third-place win, and we hope he enjoys his TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition.
Second place goes to 16aroth6 for his TI-BASIC entry, "Space". He created an attractive and complete guide to the solar system, complete with information about each of the planets, simulation of the planets' orbits, graphical comparisons of the planets' relative size, and a tool that lets you compute how much you would weigh on any planet. Other than the controversial nit that it counts Pluto as a planet, we found the program to be a great educational companion. If we had one suggestion for the author, it would be to give us the ability to modify the gravity equations for the planets' orbits so that users could see how our solar system would change if the planets' masses or the fundamental constants in the laws of gravity were different. We look forward to seeing what 16aroth6 will be able to make with his new TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition.
Saving the best for last, we are proud to present the first place prize to Zeldaking for his TI-BASIC entry, "Projectile Project". Besides superbly mixing fun and learning to teach students the equations for projectile motion, Projectile Project has an engaging plot, intuitive gameplay, and surprisingly good graphics for a TI-BASIC program. It was clear to all of the judges that Zeldaking put a great deal of thought and effort into creating his entry, and even in its beta form, with 10 levels, we think it would be a useful teaching tool for high school and college physics students alike. We will eagerly await the finished Projectile Project showing up in the Cemetech Archives, and can't wait to see what Zeldaking will make with his new TI-Nspire CX CAS and TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition. Finally, we want to single out Zeldaking for his perseverance: he has entered three consecutive Cemetech Contests, and his first time completing his entry is also his first time winning.
To all our contestants and winners, congratulations! Please PM me your mailing address, and we'll get your prizes to you soon. If you feel like eventually posting up photos of your prizes and/or what you plan to do with them, we certainly won't complain. We also request that all contestants upload their finished projects to the Cemetech Archives. If you didn't win, fear not, we have Cemetech Contest #11 starting early this fall! The subject will be Lua programming, and the prizes will probably include TI-Nspire calculators.
Left to right: "Projectile Project", "Space", and "Holefield"
