CONTENTS2. From the Editors

3. From the President

4. Socials Reports

6. Upcoming Socials

7. Brightest Young Minds

8. Upcoming Science Events

From the EditorsGreetings reader! As per usual, my minions have done a fantastic job tracking down the latest in all that’s YSA related. In fact, we’re a month early for this “Spring” edition! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together.

And remember to keep those YSA photos rolling in to be eligible for another $10 so-cials voucher. Entries will be selected from the photos uploaded to the YSA Sydney Facebook page, so get cracking! The front cover shows last issue’s winner, shot by Katherine Gregory. Congratulations!

Victor

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10. Chemists: A Day in the Life

14. Natcon Report

16. Earthquakes: Ready to Rumble?

18. Competitions

Salutations, my friends, and welcome once more to the mystical, confounding and slightly igneous world of YSA! And as a bastion of knowledge, guarding us against ignorance, apathy and sometimes raptors is the YSA newsletter...

I hope that there is a little for everybody (and a lot for somebody...) in these pages. From the cutting edge of science we have a tale of three chemists – one bioactive, one surface reactive and one radioactive! Or if you’re one with more of a social bent, we have reports from the last socials and an in-vitation to the upcoming murder mystery, and believe me, this is one social that you

don’t want to miss out on, so RSVP ear-ly. We also have included in this edition a NatCon report, well worth a read if you’ve ever wondered what the banana-benders or Mexicans are up to.

Well, that’s enough from me. Bon appetit!

Matthew

From the President

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SocialsWhere can you have a Bohemian Rhapsody when (Oops!) You Do It Again in a Yellow Submarine for a Thousand Miles to the City of Angels with Barbie Girl, Superman, Beau-ty and the Beast to pay Tribute to Miss Ameri-can Pie because Girls Just Want To Have Fun? None other than that popular pastime designed to humiliate the unfortunate tone-deaf major-ity of the population that I readily assign my-self to.

Karaoke.

On Saturday May 31, a gathering met in front of the Town Hall steps where we were sur-rounded by black-clad teenagers in skinny jeans, dripping mascara and eye-covering fringes. Unfortunately this gathering con-sisted of about eight YSA members ready to go karaoke-ing (joined later on by Pat and Dunstan). So we headed off for the oldest (18 years old) karaoke place in Australia (there’s a bit of trivia for you- too bad I can’t remember the name of the place).

As we paid our discounted Happy Time fee, we entered a dark corridor of mystery (insert X-Files tune here). Suddenly, out of nowhere came this unintelligible howl. Turned out to be some inferior version of Luciano Pavarotti or similar. I’m sure we sounded much worse.

Our room? The couches were like plastic marshmallows- complete heaven. Finally de-ciding not to decipher the hieroglyphics of the Chinese songs, we somehow managed to work the remote and pick some sort of song.

For two hours straight, we belted our lungs out. I think, in the end, it became more a com-petition of who could scream the loudest. Of course this was accompanied by some -might I say- unique dance moves. Acknowledgement

should be given to the male attendees. They were ableto reach both the inhumanly lowest and highest notes of the session.

Unfortunately, just as we had entered in all those songs we were so eager to sing, our entertainment ended.

For my first social, it was an ...um...interest-ing way to meet and get to know other YSA members - you know, by how tone-deaf each person was.

Looking for fun? Stressed? Want some pri-vate Pavarotti time? Karaoke is definitely the way to go, especially with possibly a couple more than ten YSA crew.

Amanda Zhou

Karaoke

ReportsI want to open it up

and sit in front of it

- Victor

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On a cold night in Newtown a group of thirty-two YSA members took part in a regressive dinner along King Street. Despite the chilly night air many people were still willing to devour the rich frozen dessert known as ice-cream and those that were not were still all too willing to bring epiphany to their tastebuds with a delectable slice of cake. This dessert at Ice and Slice was the first of three gratifying courses presented to our people to inspire the party onwards and outwards.

This followed on to Thai La Ong where a fla-voursome flow of food came and washed over us all. There were a variety of different dishes including duck, beef, chicken, rice and a vast range of tasty yet unidentified vegetables. (At least I think they were vegetables). The sheer amount of food consumed at this restaurant could have fed an army for a year but sadly for whichever army that is we ate it first. And after the food was shared around and the bill was split it was time to move onwards, or maybe backwards, to the surprise entrée.

And I found the entrée very surprising. Of thirty-two people, only four volunteered for sushi. Of these four only three managed to eat it all. And one of these brave people even managed to eat the sushi that I could not fin-

ish. Upon walking out of Eat Me Sushi these four discovered that everyone had moved next door to Gelatissimo where they were consuming coffee, more gelato and sit-ting around discussing the seediness of the area. And this suspicion seemed just when we saw a car speed by with several police vehi-cles following close behind.

A big congratulations is due for the effort of many people in the organisation of this fan-tastic night including Jun Tong, Sushi (not the sushi we ate but Sushi the person) and Mi-chelle Dodd. Thank you to all who attended, and especially to those previously mentioned and the staff at the restaurants we attended.

Brett Hoppenbrouwer

renniD evissergeR

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The revue will be on 7:30pm Thurs 9th Oct til Sat 11th October in the York Theatre at the Seymour Centre at Sydney University. This years production is called “Radius of the Lost Arc”. YSA members are being offered tick-ets at the reduced $15 (the ACCESS price). Profits go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of NSW. Tickets can be booked either through online at http://www.seymour.usyd.edu.au/boxoffice/program.shtml

At the moment it looks like YSA is planning to go on the Friday night. Check the forums at www.ysa.org.au/sydney closer to the date for more details.

Save the Date!YSA Sydney Ball

27th September, 2008

Sci-Revue: Radius of the Lost Arc

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Upcoming SocialsMurder Mystery - Olympics

Date: 16th August, 2008Every four years, the worlds top athletes gather for contests of endurance, speed and skill. But this is no ordinary Olympics - in-trigue abounds, everybody has something to hide, and some people will stop at nothing to achieve their goals...See the enclosed flyer for all the details

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“So, what are you doing next week?” “Um, a thing.”That was the initial extent of our knowledge of the Brightest Young Minds Summit 2008. One hundred young adults clustered together on Sunday the 6th at Macquarie University with perhaps not the brightest young minds (it was much too early).

As we soon found out, the summit was a place for young people to make the world a better place to make these dreams a reality. It was run by Josh and David Price, with Hugh Ev-ans - Young Australian of the Year 2004 and founder of Oaktree Foundation - as the main speaker. After the introduction of each other at the “world cafe”, we got into rounds of “open space”. This was basically a chaotic atmosphere filled with people screaming, act-ing and singing out their ideas to anyone and everyone. Others put their ideas on the board stealthily to avoid such embarrassment.

After this eventful event, each idea had a meeting which anyone could join and put in their two cents. Of the sixty ideas that were thought up, eight were chosen by a vote sys-tem and the remainder of the BYM summit was dedicated to fleshing out the details and creating a pitch.

The event ended at Westpac, where we pitched the ideas to business-people. The winner of the $3,000 start up fund was “Grounded” - a project dealing with refugee involvement in the Australian culture.

Overall, the experience was wonderful. My eyes were opened to the possibilities out there and my ideas will not rot in my brain. This experience has taught me that big things are possible for young people.

Sukey Pan

Brightest Young Minds

Everything reminds me of space ships these days

-Steph

Kids at TSSE 2010 will be younger than Windows 95

-Vlad

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Sydney Uni Live!Date: Saturday 30th AugustTime: 8:30 am – 2:00 pm. You don’t need to help for the whole day, just an hour of your time is much appreciated.Where: Eastern Avenue, University of Syd-neyDescription: Distributing sherbert, making slime and doing amazing things with eggs for the entertainment of the thousands of people who come to the University Open Day. It’s al-ways heaps of fun, plus you get to spread the word of YSA to the masses.RSVP: Pat Mahony, sci-liaison@sydney.ysa.org.au

Call for Volunteers

YSA is getting involved in a number of ex-citing and fun upcoming science events. With National Science Week approaching ever faster, we’ll need all the help we can get from you all out there! Check out the list of events below. Each day that you help out with during Science Week gets you one Level 1 activity in the new SCARS system – get 3 days and they will count as a Level 2.

Australian Geographic in-store demonstrationsDates: Saturday 16th August – Sunday 17th AugustTime: about 10 am – 2 pmStores: Warringah Mall, Penrith, Hornsby

Description: To help promote National Sci-ence Week, Australian Geographic is orga-nising some interactive demonstrations for school-aged children. The aim is to draw the attention of shoppers to National Science Week. We need the gracious help of some YSA members to perform some simple but fun and interactive demos. A small group of just 3 or 4 people at each store would be great! Please contact Science Liaison (sci-liaison@sydney.ysa.org.au) if you’re free on this weekend, and you can make it to one of the stores.

RSVP: Bernie Phu, b.phu@ysa.org.au by Friday 15th August

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Schools ProgramDates: Tuesday 26th – Friday 29th August

Time: about 10 am – 4 pm

Description: A fun and simple activity that involves taking groups of kids around Harris Street. YSA volunteers are needed to help as guides for these groups.

RSVP: Bernie Phu, b.phu@ysa.org.au by Fri-day 22nd August

‘Scienteering’ EventDates: Thursday 28th – Saturday 30th August

Time: about 10 am – 4 pm (possibly an earlier start on the first day)

Description: This event involves a number of stations or booths set up along Harris Street. Each booth has one or more problem-solving activities, as well as a theme that corresponds with an organisation from a particular field, e.g. medicine, engineering, environmental, technological, etc. YSA volunteers are needed to help man the booths, and will be assist-ing participants with the problems, as well as handing out promotional material about the sponsoring organisations. RSVP: Bernie Phu, b.phu@ysa.org.au by Fri-day 22nd August

Ultimo Science Festival

Steph: Michael Caine used to be so attractive...

Dunstan: He still is!

UNSW TSSE 2008Dates: Wed 1st– Fri 3 Oct (school holidays!)Training dates: Mon 29th – Tues 30th SeptPlace: University of New South Wales, Kens-ington campusSCARS Grading: Level 2. Training will also include Advanced Science Show Training, which is a requirement to reach your Level 2.

If anyone is keen to be a staffie at UNSW TSSE please contact Bernie (b.phu@ysa.org.au) or Claire (c.johnson@ysa.org.au).You must be available for training in order to staff the TSSE!!RSVP by Tuesday 23rd September. Send us your name, email, phone number, and a list of any science schools you’ve staffed before.

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A Day in the LifeChemists:

Interested in a career as a chemist? Struggling to finish that pesky HSC chemistry dotpoint? Well this issue of the newsletter hears from three practicing chemists, (and active YSA members) on what their jobs are really all about.

HSC Subjects: : English, Maths B, Chemistry, Legal Studies, Business Organisa-tion and Management, Information Processing and TechnologyUniversity Degree: Bachelor of Applied Science Innovation majoring in Chemi-cal Technology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT)Employer: Wattyl Australia Pty LtdOccupation: Paint Chemist

Matthew Heskett

Job Description:I am employed as a Chemist in the Technical Service department of Wattyl Australia. In our department, we investigate customer complaints from Retail and Trade customers, along with site visits to inspect and provide advice on ma-jor building projects. As a result of this, I tend to liaise not only with customers, but also internal departments such as Marketing and Research and Development to make improvements to ex-isting products. My main role involves testing paint using a number of different techniques de-pending on the nature of the complaint, but also includes conducting product trials and evalua-tions for new and upcoming products and com-parative testing for potential customers.

YSA: That hand could be anyone’s!

-Pat

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Isocyanate functional group

Carbamine functional group Carbamic acid

Amine functional group

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My role tends to utilise important chemical principles, such as logical problem solving, communication and the ability to interpret data. An example of logical problem solving could be where a customer is complaining about poor coverage and very thick paint when they return to paint a second coat. The problem solving pro-cess would involve checking the viscosity and opacity of the customers paint and the sample of paint retained when the batch was made. If there are any discrepancies, I would perform a solids analysis on both samples. If the custom-ers paint is higher in solids than the batch retain, it would appear that the customer had not stirred the paint adequately prior to application, giving a poor finish and leaving a lot of the heavier ma-terials behind, resulting a higher solids content.

It is important in our workplace to work as a team and collaborate where possible. If there is a particular recurring issue being submitted to Technical Services, my data analysis and results are passed onto the Research and Develop-ment laboratories so they can identify a potential issue and work to improve the situation.

One of our products, moisture-curing polyurethane can react differently depending on the relative humidity (RH) of the atmosphere at the time of application. A RH greater than 85% can cause the product to cure too quickly, making it difficult to clean up brushes and rollers and gives a poor finish, as the product doesn’t flow out properly. If the RH is lower than 35%, the product simply does not cure, causing the surface to remain sticky. A two-step reaction is shown below:

HSC Subjects: : Physics, Chemistry, Math-ematics Ext 2, English Ext 1, EconomicsUniversity Degree: Currently studying Bach-elor of Science (Adv), majoring in Chemistry from the University of SydneyEmployer: Food Science AustraliaOccupation: Analytical Chemist

Job Description:I work as an analytical chemist in Food Science Aus-tralia, a division of CSIRO. I’m involved in projects in flavour and volatile chemistry, phytochemistry (the chemistry of compounds from plants), and prov-enance (using chemical tests to determine where a

Matthew Dunstan

particular food was made or grown). As we often have projects that combine elements from each of these fields, collaboration is essential in order to collate our data and interpret it to form conclusions about, for example, the connection between the amount of a particular chemical isotope in beef and where the cows were farmed.

Probably one of the most important chemical principles I use in my work is chromatography, which is a way of separating chemical compounds in a mixture according to their relative size and charge. The mixture is dissolved in a mobile phase (which can be a liquid or a gas) and compounds within the mixture are retarded by different amounts as they pass over a station-ary phase. They proceed through a column, and after different times, isolated compounds emerge from the column, allowing them to be identified and quantified. Gas chromatography is used frequently for volatile and taint analysis (when the compounds themselves are gaseous at room temperature) while liquid chromatography is used in phytochemistry to identify and quantify different compounds in foods (for example, determining the amount of vitamin C in oranges).

One major contaminant that we analyse for is phenol and 2,6-dichlorophenol. However, be-cause of the highly polar –OH group, phenols and their derivatives are not suitable for gas chromatography. To overcome this, we convert the phenols to their acetate esters, which are much easier to analyse. However, this reaction must occur around pH 10 if it is to be efficient at all (so that the phenol is deprotonated), otherwise very little phenol is converted and we won’t be able to get a good gas chromatograph. Thus, pH must be monitored carefully throughout the reaction. A summary of the reaction for phenol is shown below (at pH 10).

C6H5-O- + CH3CO-Cl --> C6H5-O-COCH3 + Cl-Phenolate ion + Acetyl chloride --> Phenyl Acetate + Chloride ion

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HSC Subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Mathemat-ics Ext 2, English Ext 1, Studies of ReligionUniversity Degree: Bachelor of Science (Hon-ours), majoring in Chemistry from the Univer-sity of SydneyEmployer: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology OrganisationOccupation: Radiochemist

Job Description:My current job involves developing a method for re-moving radioactive elements from mineral deposits. It thus involves aspects of chemical engineering and analytical chemistry. In my work, collaboration is im-portant: I work with engineers and lab technicians to design experiments, I work with other chemists who use techniques such as X-ray Fluorescence Spectros-

Pat Mahony

copy and Atomic Emission Spectroscopy to analyse my samples, and with my supervisors to analyse and interpret results.

One common analysis is for the radioisotope polonium-210. Po-210 is separated from other elements onto a silver disc, and then counted using alpha spectrometry. The Po-210 extraction is complicated, and some is always lost, so a Po-209 tracer is added at the start of the analysis. The use of a tracer uses the chemical principle that radioisotopes behave the same chemically, but emit α-particles of different energies. By measuring the activity of the Po-209 and Po-210 in the final sample, I can calculate the amount of Po-209 that is lost, and thus the original Po-210 in the sample.

Leaching is a process where some species are selectively dissolved into a liquid. Copper ore is leached to remove uranium, which is more soluble in H2SO4 and HCl than copper. However, the solubility of different cations depends strongly on the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP). If the conditions become too oxidising, copper will begin to dissolve as well. Thus the ORP has to be monitored and controlled to prevent loss of copper from the ore.

Po-210 Analysis:Solid sample --> Dissolve sample in acid --> Add Po-209 tracer --> Extract Cu and Fe (discard) --> Extract Po (both isotopes) --> Deposit on Ag disc --> Measure activity of both Po-209 and Po-210 in final sample --> Calculate recovery (%) of Po-209 tracer --> Use this to calculate amount of Po-210 in original sample

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Natcon Melbourne 2008

A Million Gerbils with Wings and LasersThis year, the National Conference for YSA was held in Melbourne from 11-13 July. Despite the unnaturally cold tem-peratures, YSA Sydney was represented by four brave souls: myself, Matt Heskett, Steph Momsen and Pat Mahony. I arrived on the Friday morning with Pat and Steph to find the mercury nudging only 8 degrees Celsius (a trend for the next three days) and were met by Bob, the YSA Melbourne

socials coordinator and his trusty MWOP Riccardo. After a quick attempt to find an Airport Geocache (which was a failure due to dodgy GPS signal) we were on our way to Melbourne Uni and went straight into the business of discussing what’s go-ing on in YSA with the other chapters and how we might work together in the future. Friday was a productive day, from whence we headed to Lygon St for some very tasty Italian food and gelato, and of course, some compulsory hands of 500.

Saturday saw us back at Melbourne Uni (and the temperature hadn’t changed ei-ther!), discussing amongst other things, how useful it would be if we could have a million gerbils engineered to have wings and lasers to run the public transport sys-tem and communications, and to cook our food for us. Lunch was quite an adventure, which saw us scour the Queen Victoria markets for the best fresh food to feast on! It was here that I learnt a very important lesson: if strawberries are cheap, there’s a reason. In the afternoon we discussed more

I’m not a nerd, I’m sci-curious - Steph

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matters to do with the National website and possible partnerships for the future, before heading to Stalactites for dinner (so much meat...if you haven’t picked up by now, Nat-Con was quite the culinary treat!). The night saw us traversing the streets of Melbourne playing WYD pilgrim bingo, which I think Pat won after seeing pilgrims from over twenty countries.

The final day saw us at Bob’s house (which meant that I got a sleep in!), for a final talk about new directions for YSA, including radio shows and blogs. Continuing the run of fantastic food was Bob and Prim’s delicious crepes with chocolate sauce for lunch. With that ended the official proceedings for the weekend, and we had enough time to find our first Victorian Geocache near Bob’s house before heading back to the Airport and flying out. It was an amazing weekend, one that was both very productive and hilarious. I’d like to thank all the YSA Melbourne members for organising NatCon and NatCamp, and especially to Bob and his family for hosting 3 YSA Sydney people at his house. And of course, I can’t forget thanking the million gerbils for running the trains...

Matthew Dunstan

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Earthquakes: Ready to Rumble?Earthquakes are among the most devastating natural disasters on Earth. The recent earthquake that shook the Sichuan province in China only 3 on May 12 measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale. However, in the week following, hundreds of af-tershocks continued to trigger landslides that bur-ied even more towns and civilians. The confirmed death toll (so far) is 69,197 whilst 374,176 were injured, and 4.8 million people homeless. It was a major event that dominated media headlines, and moved millions of people around the world. Earthquakes are very real, and very sudden. It is rare that towns and cities are safely evacuated in time.

SO WHAT IS AN EARTHQUAKE?

Earthquakes are triggered by tectonic activity in the Earth’s crust, that is, the movement of the con-tinental plates. These plates envelop the Earth’s surface, fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. At the boundaries of these plates, huge volumes of pressure and stress can build up as the plates move and scrape against each other.

The regions where continental plates meet are typical fault zones. Faulting is a process by which the crust fractures and the fault line moves due to those intense pressures. The process by which happens is called elastic-rebound theory: basi-cally, this is when two plates moving against each other are locked together by friction, however the forces acting upon those plates still continue to

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build up. Potential elastic energy increases until it overcomes the frictional force, and as a result the two plates spring apart, releasing a massive amount of energy. This is an earthquake.

The point under the Earth where the energy is released is called the epicentre. Seismic waves are released when the underground rocks frac-ture, and they spread out in a concentric circles of dissipating energy from the epicentre. For this reason, the greatest surface damage is caused di-rectly above the epicentre, whilst regions furthest from the epicentre experience the least damage. These seismic waves are what causes the intense vibrations of the land that destroy property and induce landslides and tsunamis. These waves are also detected by equipment for scientists to anal-yse and study.

ARE EARTHQUAKES ALL BAD?

It would seem so! But in fact, earthquakes are essential to all life on Earth, because they stabi-lise the forces beneath the crust by allow small amounts of energy to be released now and again, thereby keeping the lithosphere in balance. Even larger earthquakes measuring very high numbers on the Richter Scale release relatively small vol-umes of energy, when compared with the total amount of pressure built up by tectonic activity around the globe. The plates have to move, and when they move, they build up stress and strain in the crust. That’s just the physics of how the Earth works. And the way the Earth gets rid of that ex-

cess stress and strain, is through earthquakes. It is crucial for scientists, governments and the public to understand how earthquakes work in or-der to predict when the next one is going to hap-pen, and to prepare for it. We can’t simply stop Mother Nature, so we must work with her.

“BULIDINGS KILL, NOT EARTH-QUAKES”

This is a popular truism adopted by scientists around the world. It is based upon the fact that the type of environment and the appropriateness of the infrastructure in a particular region is what determines the destruction caused by an earth-quake – not the earthquake itself! Regardless of the intensity of an earthquake, the right sort of building structure can prevent a lot of damage and save a lot of lives.

For this reason, scientists and landscape planners often work together with governments to develop strict constructions codes that allow buildings to sway in the event of an earthquake, rather than crumble. In countries like Japan, Italy and north-ern Turkey which are situated very close to fault lines, these codes can mean the difference be-tween life and death.

Consider this: An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter Scale, rumbling for 3 days straight in a flat, sparsely populated landscape will still cause less damage than an earthquake measur-ing 5.0 on the Richter Scale that lasts for barely 3 minutes in a densely populated city.

GO-GO GADGET!

The Richter Scale, developed by Charles F. Rich-ter of the California Institute of Technology in 1935, is the most popular scale used today to mea-sure the magnitude of earthquakes (the amount of energy and seismic waves released) using spe-cialised instruments called seismographs. Most people also know of the Modified Mercalli Inten-sity Scale, which is used to measure the intensity or size of an earthquake based upon physical ob-servations of the impact upon the environment, to

gauge the violence of shaking caused.

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But do you know when humankind first started trying to measure earthquakes? It was in China in 132 A.D., when Zhang Heng invented what was called the “dragon jar”. It consisted of a cylindrical device with eight bronze dragons evenly spaced around the sides, each with a small metal ball held in its mouth. Seated beneath each dragon around the base of the jar were eight bronze toads. In the event of an earthquake, a metal ball fell out of a dragon’s mouth and into the mouth of its corre-sponding toad, which supposedly indicated the direction of the earth-quake in relation to the jar. No doubt a real earthquake would have thrown the entire device out the window! At least it was a creative attempt at the world’s first seis-mograph!

Bernadette is a first year Commerce/Science student at the University of NSW who enjoys learning about rocks.

CompetitionsCongratulations to the two winners of last edition’s competitions. Thilini Attanayake was the winner of the committee baby photo guessing competition, and Katherine Grego-ry’s winning snap is on the front cover. Both winners receive a $10 socials voucher for any 2008 event.

President’s Perplexing Puzzles

Enter into a dark realm of the unknown...the first to solve all three puzzles and email them to me at president@sydney.ysa.org.au will win a $10 socials voucher. A thread will be started on the forums to discuss possible solu-tions, and to answer queries (such as those for the input/output, see below).

Puzzle #1You are the most eligible bachelor in the king-dom, and as such the King has invited you to his castle so that you may choose one of his three daughters to marry. The eldest princess is honest and always tells the truth. The young-est princess is dishonest and always lies. The middle princess is mischievous and tells the truth sometimes and lies the rest of the time. As you will be forever married to one of the princesses, you want to marry the eldest (truth-teller) or the youngest (liar) because at least you know where you stand with them. The problem is that you cannot tell which sis-ter is which just by their appearance, and the King will only grant you ONE yes or no ques-tion which you may only address to ONE of the sisters. What yes or no question can you ask which will ensure you do not marry the middle sister?

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I have an assessment tomorrow. We’re standing in a dark room flashing.

-Emily

Puzzle #2Input/Output – the puzzle is to try and figure out the rule. You can request outputs for given inputs via the YSA forums. I’ve given you a few samples inputs and their outputs to start you off.Inputs = Positive nonzero integersOutputs = Integers

Input --> Output1 --> 02 --> 13 --> 1

4 --> -15 --> 010 --> 0

20 --> 3100 --> 21000 --> 1

Puzzle #3An evil wizard has captured 100 gnomes, and they can only gain their freedom by passing a test. They are all locked in a room and told the rules of the test and given ample time to prepare a strategy to pass it. First, they will all be lined up in a line, facing towards the front, and able to see all the gnomes in front of them, but not the gnomes behind them. Either a red hat

or a blue hat will be placed on each gnome’s head, but each gnome will be unable to see his own hat or any of the hats of people behind him. The wizard will then start at the back of the line and ask each gnome what his hat co-lour is. If he answers it correctly, he is set free; incorrectly, and he is bound to slavery forever. What strategy can the gnomes come up with so that at least 99 of them will definitely be set free?

Caveats:*The gnomes can speak only a single word when asked: “Red” or “Blue” and in a mono-tone voice such that no additional information is conveyed.*There is NO COMMUNICATION WHAT-SOEVER between the gnomes once they are in line except for the statement of their hat co-lour when prompted.*There is no set ratio of red to blue hats

Best of luck!!

Keep those cameras clicking!

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Don’t hide your wonderful YSA snaps away from the rest of the world! Get them out there by uploading them to the YSA Sydney Face-book page. Not only can you show off your skill with lenses, you’ll also be in the running to win a $10 voucher for any 2008 social. The winner will be featured on the front cover of

the next newsletter.

Note: Make sure you upload your entries to the YSA SYDNEY Facebook group, not the Young Scientists of Australia national page!

Copyright YSA Sydney 2008