Office Chair Long Jump
The Concept
You know the long jump. You've seen it on TV while watching the
(other) Olympics. The people run really fast down a long runway,
propel themselves into the sky and land (hopefully) feet-first into a
big sand pit. Well, this is the AI Lab and we like to do things a bit
differently here. There aren't any sand pits in the building, but
there are large flat open areas (known as playrooms). We can't jump
very well, but we sure do get around on our office chairs. Hence, the
AI Lab version of the long jump is the Office Chair Long Jump.
Competitors will propel themselves down a runway with their feet.
Before they get to the end of the runway, they will stop
propelling themselves and coast to a stop. The distance of their
"jump" will be their score.
The Rules
- Each competitor will be allowed two "jumps" with the longer
distance counting for the final rankings.
- Each competitor must have his or her rear (both cheeks!) firmly
planted in the seat of the chair during the "jump." Not having
both cheeks on the chair before crossing the line is a fault
(see below). Locomotion may be provided in (more-or-less) any
manner so long as this rule is observed.
- Distance is measured as the shortest distance from the line to
the nearest part of the chair.
- Each competitor is allowed a single "fault." Two faults ends a
competitor's turn with no further scores for that competitor
being allowed. Faults include: touching the ground once the
chair has passed the line, tipping over the chair on the
runway, or hitting a wall on the runway.
- The chairs will be selected by the commissioner, and will
hopefully be of the same five-legged variety we've used in the
past few years.
- Helmets are optional.
- In the event of broken chairs, bad timing, reckless behavior,
or natural disasters, the judgment of the commissioner will
prevail.
Scoring
Each competitor will receive a score equal to the distance of his/her
best "jump." Each team will be given a score equal to the sum of all
the scores received by team members. Upper and lower bounds will be
placed on individual competitor scores in order to encourage
participation (for example, 1 foot=10 points, 2247 feet=30 points).
Hence, a team can rack up a large score simply by having many team
members participate.
jrennie+olympics@ai.mit.edu | Last Updated 1/24/01