'King of the Nerds': Season 1, Episode 7 - Enginerds - National RPG

With the teams dissolved, Danielle and Genevieve's grievances reaches a fever pitch when Danielle refuses to let Genevieve and Celeste move into their room. Ivan also realizes that he's the only guy left in the game. Danielle reveals that she's more a soloer than a team player:

I'm so glad this team s**t is over. World of Warcraft can be played as a team game, but there's a ton of stuff that you can do by yourself which is generally the stuff that I choose to do.

The Nerd War requires all of each contestant's math and physics skills to try to calculate how many sheets of glass an object will break under different conditions. Two objects are tested, a "Nerdball" and a plush pig. The hosts performa demonstration with the Nerdball. Here's the ball drop data:

The ball weighed 12 lbs
The ball diameter was 7.5 inches
The distance from the bottom of the ball to the ground was 14 feet
The distance from the bottom of the ball to the first sheet of glass was 94 inches
The sheets of glass were 2 feet x 2 feet x ¼ inch thick
The sheets of glass were spaced 3 inches apart
There were 20 sheets of glass
The weight of one sheet of glass was 11 pounds 8 ounces
4 sheets of glass broke

Danielle feels she is out of her depth:

This challenge is bulls**t! You've got Genevieve who writes AP physics guides, Moo works for NASA and has a master's degree in physics and I majored in a pre-vet program so I never had to take physics because we don't care how fast the cat can move, we care about the composition of its body.

Genevieve and Celeste decide to team up and Ivan tries and fails to get Moogega to check his work. That leaves Danielle with her only ally…the Internet:

I might be the only one in the house who's looking at My Little Pony to try to solve a physics problem. The only thing that I found that is even similar to what we're doing are people who are trying to disprove 9/11 being a terrorist attack. I have literally found probably ten web sites using an example of dropping a bowling ball through panes of glass to explain why the Twin Towers is a conspiracy.

Danielle is referencing the video shown at left on YouTube. You can see her give credit to that video in the comments section as TradeChat.

The contestants reveal estimates of how many sheets of glass will break when an object is dropped. A correct answer earns 1 point. For each pane of glass the estimate is off deducts 1 point. The contestant with the highest points wins the Nerd War.

Test A consists of:

Ball weight: 6 pounds
Ball diameter: 6 inches
Glass thickness: 1/8 inch
Glass weight, one sheet: 6 pounds
26 sheets of glass, spaced 3 inches apart
First sheet 76 inches from bottom of ball

5 panes of glass smashed. And the contestant guesses:

Danielle (5): +1 point, 1 total
Ivan (5): +1 point, 1 total
Moogega (3): -2 points, -2 total
Celeste (4): -1 point, -1 total
Genevieve (4): -1 point, -1 total

Danielle and Ivan are in the lead. This is supposed to be Moogega's specialty! Test B:

Ball weight: 8 pounds
Ball diameter: 6.75 inches
Glass thickness: ¼ inch
Glass weight, one sheet: 11 pounds, 8 ounces
13 sheets of glass, spaced 6 inches apart
First sheet 76 inches from bottom of ball

2 panes of glass smashed. The contestants guessed:

Danielle (2): +1 point, 2 total
Ivan (3): -1 point, 0 total
Moogega (2): +1 point, -1 total
Celeste (3): -1 point, -2 total
Genevieve (3): -1 point, -2 total

Ivan falls behind. Danielle is, against all odds, winning! Test C:

Pig weight: 15 pounds (this is a plush pig)
Glass thickness: ¼ inch
Glass weight, one sheet: 11 pounds, 8 ounces
26 sheets of glass, spaced 3 inches apart
First sheet 76 inches from bottom of ball

Although they failed to mention it, guessing the amount right this round is worth 2 points. Five sheets were smashed. The contestants guessed:

Danielle (4): -1 point, 1 total
Ivan (6): -1 point, -1 total
Moogega (3): -2 points, -3 total
Celeste (5): +1 point, 0 total
Genevieve (5): +1 point, 0 total

Danielle wins and earns a molecular gastronomy dinner from celebrity chef Richard Blais. Danielle graciously chooses Moo as her dinner mate. She also gets to select who goes to the Nerd-Off, with the remaining four picking one of their own. Frustrated by her loss, Moogega decides to put herself in the Nerd-Off, which she assumes is a physics-related contest – or in other words, anyone up against Moogega is likely to lose.

The alliance between Genevieve and Celeste completely falls apart thanks to Danielle's clever manipulation, playing them against each other. In the end Danielle selects Genevieve to go against Moogega. The Nerd-Off involves engineering the tallest free-standing tower. They each get an assortment of objects – the first tower to ten feet wins. If neither tower reaches ten feet, then the tallest tower at ten minutes wins the Nerd-Off. Each contestant is also given Nerf guns to fire at the other tower.

Despite several near misses in which both towers topple and Moogega tries to knock Genevieve's tower with a Nerf gun, Genevieve wins the nerd-Off (yet again):

I have to credit my win to the fact that I was homeschooled, for were I not bored at home and forced to entertain myself by building things in my room, I may not have succeeded.

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