The Trebuchet Catapult

In 1775, thirteen colonies began a fight for their independence from Britain’s rule. Without formal training in artillery tactics or a proper armament of artillery pieces, early units had to overcome adversity and hardship. But with courage and dedication the artillery and its leadership were able to play a vital role in the success on the battlefields, and ultimately the victory resulting in America earning its freedom.

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.

Light machine guns and sub-machine guns were invented during World War I as small arms, but the larger machine guns were modernized as well. Flame throwers were used as an offensive attack against trench warfare.[ix],[x]

Another result of technological progression was the matchlock, which would shoot with ignition of a lit match. "The introduction of firearms into the Elizabethan Weapons Arsenal saw the end of castle warfare and the building of the magnificent Medieval castles"(Alchin 1). With the invention of lethal, quick cannons came the decline of forts for defense as soldiers prepared for battle. Cannons were made of bronze and iron, in many different sizes, and they fired stone or iron, to be used on land or

Fourth the ancient trebuchet King Warwolf. Finally the end of an era. The materials used to build the medieval trebuchets. The early trebuchets were made of straight, heavy oak logs.

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

Many various muskets were used as well as cannons. They would have a fixed blade like a spear point on the end of the musket that is called a bayonet. They would use it like a spear

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.

There were many weapons that were used, it the war. These weapons included all sorts of rifles, bayonets, grenades, flamethrowers, machine guns, tanks, artillery, and gas. These were all the major equipment used in the war. All of these went meant for attacking, but for example the machine gun up was only used for defense. The bayonets were a very good choice and almost every soldier had one. While there were very few flamethrowers being used because if they got hit they would explode. Tanks acted like a wall, letting the soldiers get past on on their way, but landmines often blow up the tank making them not as effective as you would think they would be. But the artillery and gas where some of the most horrible things. The artillery would just shoot all day and would make huge holes in the ground and cause mass casualties. But the gas was one of the most deadly weapons because if it got to up to the shoulders it would burn them and often get in their lungs and kill them.

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.

Other weapons were also developed in the 1940’s with negative outcomes. The world’s biggest gun called the “Gustav Gun” was built in World War II. Built in Essen, Germany in 1941, it weighed 1,344 tons and required a 500 man crew to manipulate it. It was so powerful that one bullet demolished a “Russian ammunition dump 100 feet below Severnaya Bay” and “a near miss capsized a large ship in the harbor”. The Gustav Gun, along with other weapons destroyed three Soviet forts: Fort Stalin, Fort Lenin, and Fort Maxim

Barnes Wallis, also British, designed what was called an Earthquake Bomb. This was a bomb that fell from high above the earth, penetrated the ground, exploded, and caused an earthquake. It was used towards the end of the war, on massively reinforced installations, underground caverns, buried tunnels, and bridges. Some of Wallis’ bombs based on the Earthquake Bomb were used to disable the German V2 factory, bury V3 guns, sink Tirpitz, the battleship, and other previously undamageable targets.

Catapults vary much in size and design. Often times, the procedure in siege battles was to build a catapult for the right situation; the strength of the catapult depended on its’ size and ammunition and how useful it was in the right situation. According to the Google Sites page “Physics of Catapults 101”, “Catapults were known for throwing a multitude of objects at the enemy. These include but were not limited to: stones, sharp wood poles, darts, pots of Greek Fire, quicklime, burning tar, burning sand, dung, dead animals, body parts, and diseased bodies.” (First form of biological warfare utilized the Trebuchet.) Differing catapults fired better suited

More may have thaught that the use of cannons was a little too sophisticated for those remote islanders. Possibly, he had an aversion to that "villainous saltpeter" that was spoiling the heroics of knightly combat, much as Hotspur's messenger had. We know that Henry VIII retained his confidence in the longbow, believing it was a weapon England should rely on in its wars, because 25 years later he commissioned Roger Ascham to write a manual on archery to encourage its continued use

One of Roman Engineering’s greatest accomplishments was the use of the arch. The arch shape is very strong, able to support great amounts of weight. This allowed Romans to build massive structures that would stand for many centuries. The Romans adapted the arch design to fit many purposes. The barrel vault is merely an elongated arch; this was used for buildings tombs and sewers. The dome is an adaptation of the arch. The dome is an arch revolved on its vertical axis. The best example of the dome in ancient Rome is the Pantheon. The basic arch was used in almost every large building in Rome. Romans also used