Catapults Essay

The earliest trebuchets were ‘traction trebuchets’, which were developed in China in the 4th Century B.C.E. Traction trebuchets used human labor instead of a counterweight for power. The Chinese needed so much power for the trebuchet that they had up to 250 soldiers pulling on ropes to operate the machine. This machine could throw stones up to 100 meters, but was not very accurate, because of the inconsistency in using manpower.

Trebuchets are most commonly known as medieval weapons used in the Middle Ages. Us three were to build a smaller scale of the trebuchet and had to make sure it hit the target two out of the five times. We had to build a hinged-counter weight type of trebuchet with wheels that could throw a ping pong or golf ball. Through the paper I will explain the history throughout trebuchets and why to have wheels and to have a hinged counter weight on the trebuchet. Also the calculations on the potential energy and velocity are through this report. Our trebuchet met all of the requirements that were to be made and it hit the target three out of the five times. This report will

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To fire it, the spoke or arm was forced down, against the tension of twisted ropes or other springs, by a windlass, and then suddenly released. As the sling swung outwards, one end would release, as with a staff-sling, and the projectile would be hurled forward. The arm would then be caught by a padded beam or bed, when it could be winched back again. The Onager is usually the first type of catapult

The way a Trebuchet works is that a counter weight drops which pulls the arm forward and at the point of takeoff a pin releases the object that is being projected. The counterweight drops using gravity and is attached to the arm causing it to fly up and launch the object. Engineers have had previous experience in this field because of the world wide trebuchet launching competitions. One example of engineers making this trebuchet are the engineers from team NASAW in the Pumpkin Chunkin ' competition. Team NASAW has a trebuchet with a heavy weight and a long arm. There arm and weight start next to each other at the beginning. The weight drops forward and like a whip the arm swings around and fires the pumpkin into the air at insane speeds. They are one of the top competitors in the competition and have proven countless times that the design works wonderfully.

In response to the use of castles and fortresses, siege weapons were created. Siege weapons ranged from short range weapons such as the battering ram to longer range ones like the trebuchet or the ballista. The battering ram was usually a big shed with an armored roof and wheels to protect the men inside operating a thick beam with an iron head hung from the roof that was swung into enemy walls to bring them down. The siege tower, a wheeled tower filled with men that would be used to get over the walls, also saw its use during this time. The trebuchet was used for longer range, the missiles launched by the trebuchet ranged from using dead bodies of animals or people to spread disease, a primitive example of biological warfare, to using large boulders to take down fortress walls. In response

The Western military trajectory finds many of the impetuses for a military revolution stemming from non-Western stimuli. Innovations such as the composite bow (introduced by the Hyksos), cavalry (accredited to Assyria and Persia), the stirrup (attributed to China), gunpowder (China), crossbow (China), and cannons (China) have been attributed to non-Western regions; however, it is the Western militaries that exploited these innovations to their full deadly potential and in the process created military revolutions. This paper will discuss how some of these exploitations affected the Western military trajectory during the Gunpowder and First Industrial Revolutions, most often leaving the non-Western militaries lagging behind. It will also

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Compared to the trebuchet, the designs of other siege weapons were lacking in many respects. The most important of these other siege engines included the Greek ballista, the catapult, and variations on the catapult design, such as the Roman onager and mangonel. The ballista's design was very similar to an extremely large crossbow with a guide chute to keep the projectile on path. A large ballista could launch an eight pound stone over 450 yards. It took two men to operate a ballista (Hamper). A standard catapult used the inconsistent strength and weight of men as a source of power. Groups of men had to work to pull down the catapult bar in order to launch the objects. Such catapults could typically throw as much as a fifty pound rock. An onager was type of a catapult with a short arm that would be launched forward by many twisted sinews. Both the onager and the ballista were limited in accuracy and range, because the tightly twisted sinews and ropes continually wore out and needed to be replaced. Likewise, the standard catapult lacked accuracy because of the inconsistent strength and weight of the men who fired it. While all of these siege machines were useful, none of them had the range, or were as powerful, accurate, and widely used as the trebuchet (Gurstelle 18-22).

They were pretty late invention but the bow and arrow was an ultimate stone age weapon, in some parts of the world they have only been in use for 30,000 years or so. This weapon needed a number of inventions to occur before it could be finalized. First of all they needed very strong tine or string, they needed a sharp stone tool to shape the bow and the arrow and the possession to split very sharp, fine stone for the arrow tips. The skill to capture or kill prey from a distance gave our stone age man a huge advantage.

The physics concepts associated with them are projectile motion, energy, momentum, forces , speeds, and distances. The kinds of catapults all use the same theme of accumulated tension, but acquire that tension in their own way, their own design. The Mangonel catapult for instance, is what most of us think of as the traditional catapult. A large wooden device with four wheels and a spoon that launches fireballs. The Mangonel stores energy much like a spring would, therefore, we use the equation PEspring = 1/2kx^2. The tension in the ropes and arms of the catapult when pulling on its long arm stores potential energy which is transformed into kinetic energy when fired upon.

The discovery of gunpowder changed war from being fought with medieval weaponry and battle tactics to more modern day weapons and tactics because the gunpowder powered weapons are more deadly. Weapons that use gunpowder to launch projectiles have a greater range than melee weapons and are more powerful than bow and arrows. Also, cannons are more powerful and have a greater range and accuracy than catapults and they also can be reloaded faster than catapults. Gunpowder weapons changed war because they are stronger, more accurate, have a greater range and are able to be reloaded faster than medieval weaponry.

Trebuchets were a big way of fighting in the 12th century. They got the kind of weapons they used right, they just did

The history of weapons started centuries ago when cave people initially developed a weapon called a bow and arrow, for hunting purposes. They created this weapon from yew or elm for the bow and the arrow’s shaft, and used animal ligaments, or sinew to add tension to the bow. Archeologists have also found arrow heads made of sharp rocks and angled bones from different types of animals. These artifacts are all over the world displayed beautifully in museums to make new civilization realize the important role weapons have played in daily life.

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