science of catapults

Each one had a different purpose. The mangonel is the type of catapult that most people envision when they hear the word catapult. Iit consists of a bucket and an arm with a rope attached to the end. The rope caused tension while pulling the arm back, then the bucket would be loaded. After it is loaded the rope is released, the arm retracts into a 90͒ degree angle launching the items inside.

The player has now compressed the spring in the ball shooter. The ball sitting in the ball shooter is at rest. It will be at rest until acted on by an unbalanced force. This is Newton’s first law of motion, the law of inertia (Kirkpatrick and Wheeler p31). The ball shooter is then released the spring decompresses and strikes the ball sending it up the incline to the top of the pinball playing field. The strike on the ball is called the impulse. The time interval it takes for the ball momentum to change. Since the ball has no momentum because it has zero velocity the ball shooter transfers its momentum at the impulse (The Ball Shooter 2003). This also takes place in the time frame of about a second.

The men would bring down the shorter end of the long beam or arm, causing the longer end of the arm to flip up, causing the basket to loose it's projectile towards the intended target. Some of these siege weapons were held by men and cause some difficulty in battle.Gravity powered catapults simply used gravity to hurl the projectile. At its most basic understanding, a gravity catapult is simply a lever that uses centrifugal force to its advantage. Think of it as a modified seesaw. When two people are on the seesaw and both are of close weight, the seesaw balances itself. If another person came up and jumped on one end of the seesaw with one of the people, the single person on the opposite end is likely to become airborne. Like the seesaw, a gravity powered catapult is also pivoted in the middle. A counter-weight was built onto one end of the catapult and a basket or sling on the other. The projectile end was pulled down forcing the counterweighted end to

Ever thought about that one wall that you wished was never there well know you can with this easy weapon called a trebuchet is it cheap and easy to put together, it is not very dangerous so don't let your parents tell you what it is and isn't take up your trebuchet that you built and take control

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.

With the threat of zombies quickly approaching, a spring catapult needed to be built to protect Rome High School and the rest of the world from the upcoming apocalypse. That catapult is the Medieval Catapult Lier (aka MCL) which can be analyzed from the picture at the bottom of this essay. The MCL went through many adjustments such as in arm length, nail strength and tension before it could launch a tennis ball at a significant distance. Nevertheless, it was all worth it and could not have been done without the crucial subject of physics and the study of motion and energy.

This carries over with my marble, it will start at a high point and the marble will go through multiple hair-pin turns and sharp turns and the law of inertia will help to keep my marble steadily moving through the entire thing. Potential energy is the energy stored up in a object. At the start the marble will have nothing but potential energy because it will not be moving, but as soon as the marble is pushed off the start all that potential energy will be transferred into kinetic energy. The kinetic energy along with several other key factors will keep the marble rolling at a steady pace around the track.

In this experiment we tested the effect of change in arm length of the Trebuchet on the distance traveled of the projectile. We wanted to do this experiment due to our interests in engineering and our interests in the medieval era siege weaponry. We started by researching different types of Trebuchets and decided to go with the most modular and modern version. We decided to build a floating arm Trebuchet which uses the counterweight as the fulcrum. This allowed us to easily exchange the arms for testing. We built the Trebuchet using long 5.08cm x 10.16cm (2in x 4in) pieces of wood, four 4.54kg (10lb) weights, a single 1.27cm (1/2in) x 1.22m (4ft) piece of rebar, and a pouch made of paracord and duct tap. We tested this by building a Trebuchet

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.

We can look at the catapult as a lever which is meant to change direction and/or multiply the force that is applied to the projectile. A lever has three locations: the fulcrum, on which the lever arm rotates; the load, where the mass is located on the lever arm; and the effort, where the force, a push or pull, is applied (Vogel 178). It is meant to throw an object a certain horizontal distance in a certain, short time frame so that its impact would be greater than just a human hurling a giant rock at a building. We might intrinsically know this. “Probably no mechanical device is older than the lever; simple and versatile, it’s no doubt older than we humans,” mentions Steve Vogel in Cat’s Paws and Catapults (Vogel 178). If a larger kid jumps from a tree onto a seesaw with a smaller child will be launched into the air. The physics principals that govern the catapult also govern force, mass, speed and acceleration, rotational motion, and projectile motion. From these principals we find out what the optimum projectile mass, lever arm length, time, and launch angle which would produce optimum speed, impact, and horizontal distance traveled by the projectile.

Pulling back on the string creates elastic energy and when the string is released the elastic energy forces the string to go forwards therefore transforming the elastic energy to kinetic energy which transfers into the arrow when the string reach’s limit of extension.

The physics of a Trebuchet is very important. To build or analyze a Trebuchet, you have to know how it works. A Trebuchet has five different main parts. The frame, weight, sling, arm, and runway. The weight is the force that gives the arm momentum. When the weight moves the arm, the arm moves

This force is used when finding the spring constant for the elastic potential energy. The larger the force required to pull the spoon down, the larger the spring potential is. We find this relationship between the force and the spring constant from the spring constant equation, which is the force divided by the change in the distance stretched/compressed. This force is a little different each time a catapult is pulled down, as the elastic will stretch and become easier to pull down overtime. This means the data at the beginning of testing will differ from the results at the end of

In a second class lever, resistance is located between the applied force and the center. Extend the calcaneus bone, for example calves (applied force) to exert power and foot (body (resistance) in the ball center). The increased level of lever force, but declines offers the speed and range of

My project will be a catapult from ancient Rome. The catapult will have a 36 inch base. The materials will consist of mostly wood. I will also use a rope, a ball, and aluminum for design. The sides will be 36 inches long and the swinging arm will be 30 inches. The cross piece will include 4 pieces of wood, each measuring 30 inches long. The stop bar, that prevents the swing arm from breaking will be 18 inches long. To make the catapult more realistic, I am going to put accents of aluminum on the wheels, base and sides. The catapult will roll and be fully functionable. The catapult works by turning the knob on the left clockwise until the swing arm is on the stop bar. Then pull back the swinging arm then attach it to the trigger. Attach the