Trebuchets

Our Physics class was assigned the task of making a trebuchet, which is a medieval siege engine. Visit The Grey Company Trebuchet Page to find out more information about siege engines in general. For more detailed plans, check this page. Anyways, our trebuchet, if built without a partner, could be any height we wanted. So, I decided to set my aspirations high and build a huge trebuchet. However, I am usually too busy to build things, so I decided that I should start with a model. I made one using popsicle sticks and a chopstick. My counterweight is a lead fishing weight, which I have held in place with the end of the chopstick. My sling is made of cloth and the strings attaching it to the throwing arm are just thread. I didn't get past the model by the due date, however, so I stuck with my popsicle model, which took about six hours to build.

Launching day came and I threw a Red Hot approximately 1 meter. See how a trebuchet throws things. Not too bad for an 8 inch high model. I was rejoicing when CRUNCH! an oafish foot brought it to its doom. Enraged, I picked up the pieces of my baby and retreated to halfway across the football field, where I commented on my angry state loudly and in the general direction of the clumsy person. It turned out that only a few parts had broken, so I fixed it and super fortified it so that it would never break again. However, there are a few problems with this resurrected model. I still need to toy with the length of the sling string and make sure the axis for the throwing arm is level. Other than that, the tragedy turned out to be alright. I am glad I didn't build a larger trebuchet, because some of the larger ones didn't have enough weight in the base and rocked back and forth very dangerously. Here are the pictures:

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