Submitted by: Hari, Eli, Swapnil and Jwalin
Read their cover letter below:
“We have crafted our own solar flare game to represent the positive and negative effects of the discharge of plasma from a solar flare. The aim is to lessen the impact of the plasma expulsion by hitting Earth’s magnetic field (mitigating the damage on Earth), striking the atmosphere near the poles to cause the aurora borealis, or even allowing the plasma to be used for enhanced weather research. However, colliding with satellites or power grids will have negative effects, and thus increasing the measurement of impact (pascals) resulting in a higher score, away from the 0 points desired to win. The game starts at 200 pascals and you aim to strike something positive that lessens the impact of the solar flare and the score.
Objective: Attempt to decrease from 200 Pascals to 0 Pascals in 2 minutes.
Instructions: Pull back the rubber band (representing the sun) and launch out your marble (plasma) which demonstrates how the solar flare works when its pressure has built up within the sun. The plasma will then take a journey around the board and eventually hit one of these five – damaged power grids (+10), defaced satellites (+20), Earth’s magnetic field (-50), Earth’s atmosphere (-25) or taken in for enhanced weather research (-10).”