transition states - 2025 ACF Nationals

Tossup

These physical entities can be found by applying the Lanczos (“LANT-sosh”) algorithm in the activation-relaxation technique. Identification of these entities often requires introducing a “fudge factor” transmission coefficient (10[1])to account for reversals from quantum tunneling. The one imaginary frequency of these entities’ normal mode (10[1])can be found using the (10[1])STQN method developed by Peng and Schlegel. These entities can be analyzed (-5[1])by measuring differences in path length created by a beam splitter, as pioneered in (-5[1])experiments on cyanogen (-5[1])iodide by Ahmed Zewail. (10[3])These (10[1])entities, (10[2])which can (10[1])be analyzed (10[2])with laser pulses in femtochemistry, (10[1])resemble the species they are closest (10[1])to (10[1])in free energy according to Hammond’s (10[1])postulate. (10[2])For 10 (10[1])points, (10[1])saddle points on a potential energy surface (-5[1])represent what species, which are the highest energy states of a (-5[1])reaction? ■END■ (10[2]0[2])

ANSWER: transition states [prompt on chemical reactions by asking “what part of the reaction?”; prompt on saddle points by asking “what entities do they correspond to?”]

= Average correct buzz position

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Buzzes

Player	Team	Opponent	Position	Value
Geoffrey Wu	Columbia A	Indiana	26	10
Andrew Wang	Illinois A	Toronto A	42	10
Rasheeq Azad	North Carolina A	UC Berkeley A	47	10
Richard Niu	Cornell A	Virginia Tech	59	-5
Rohan Dalal	Georgia Tech	Toronto C	73	-5
Shardul Rao	Minnesota	Johns Hopkins	76	-5
Russell Nip	British Columbia	Florida	80	10
Adam Fine	Chicago A	Stanford	80	10
Liam Kusalik	Waterloo A	Northwestern	80	10
Caleb Ott	Waterloo B	LSE	81	10
Raymond Chen	Toronto B	MIT	82	10
Vinu Harihar	UC Berkeley B	WUSTL B	82	10
Aiden Dartley	Rutgers	WUSTL A	84	10
Amogh Kulkarni	Georgia State	Ottawa	86	10
Bryan Ugaz	Arizona State	NYU	86	10
Shiva Tegulla	UCF	Maryland	91	10
Karan Gurazada	Texas	Harvard	97	10
Cade Reinberger	RIT	North Carolina B	98	10
Simon Zimmerman	Ohio State	Michigan	104	10
Derek Chen	Columbia B	Vanderbilt	105	10
Alan Xie	Yale	Penn State	105	10
Shardul Parthasarathy	Illinois B	Winona State	107	10
Sinecio Morales	Johns Hopkins	Minnesota	108	10
Conor Thompson	Iowa State	Chicago B	115	-5
Joseph Chambers	Virginia	Cornell B	126	-5
Ezra Santos	Chicago B	Iowa State	128	0
Sarod Nori	Cornell B	Virginia	128	0
Jason Zhang	Toronto C	Georgia Tech	128	10
Ilyas Choukri	Virginia Tech	Cornell A	128	10

Summary

Tournament	Exact Match?	TUH	Conv. %	Power %	Neg %	Average Buzz
2025 ACF Nationals	Yes	24	92%	0%	21%	87.59