Dec 18, 2015
Can You Say TRE-BU-CHET? The whole point of this
project was to apply our physics skills to a real life problem…building a trebuchet.
The first thought that came into ALL our heads was…SWEEEET.
What we didn’t know was the sweat and blood that was needed to be put into this kind of project. Screws will be lost, wood will be broken, and kids will be having the times of their lives.
Design We looked at the two trebuchets that were in the
classroom. We also looked online for trebuchet designs. We looked at all what we looked at, and decided to do
the one that we thought would be the best, and altered the design a tad bit. Which was the one by Zack Starr.
The ListItem Quantity Cost
2x4x8 6 $17.46
1x4x6 3 $7.41
Threaded steel rod (1/2”)
1 $3.18
Screws (sharing with other group)
Eye hooks 4 $.85
Wheels 4 $14.68
Thick wire (24”) 1 $.50
Washers (same # as screws)
TOTAL $34.08
Well this is our item list, and at the end wasn’t the same amount of materials that we actually used.
As for the wheels, they made us go way over our budget, so we had to get rid of them.
And we didn’t get washers, we found some on the floor that were unused (supposedly).
The exact final cost, and the amount of materials used, isn’t known.
SUPPLIES!!
Well how else would you build a trebuchet without buying supplies for it?!
So we all went to Lowes, wait, Evan went to Lowes to get the supplies need to build the trebuchet.
Look at that man working hard
Yes, finally, BUILDING!
We knew what to do right away when starting to build.
The base was the first thing I think all of us built.
DISCUSSING
We all obviously saw something we didn’t like.
Just look at their faces…
discussing AND building
We got to workin’ pretty quick.
FEET
Just look at all those beautiful feet.
Oh, and there’s the base too.
Hard working kids
That’s a lot of wood soon to be trebuchets
Seems to me the guys and gals separated for some reason in that group…
Hess
GO GIRLS!
Well look at those guys helping out!
Yes, great teamwork.
Marking territory
Just a Physics student’s way of saying, “This is my wood.”
MUAHAHA, CIRCULAR SAW
Couldn’t cut the wood out in the rain, didn’t want to get the wood wet.
Yea team!
Cody’s got that quick hand.
It’s the arm
Hess and Sims finally get on the key part of a trebuchet…THE ARM
Whoops
Well about this time we thought, “Hey, maybe we should get some bolts for the trebuchet…”
So the girls went to Lowe’s and got the supplies we needed, good call ladies.
WTF!??!
Yea Evan, good job, trying to cut a wire in two with a drill.
Evan’s teammates watch in amusement
The box…
Well um, the box, can’t really say much about it
Great job team!
Well there it is, they got it on.
And finally, LAUNCH TIME
Well it was hard work getting the trebuchet down to the field and set up.
We brought some home weights for the counterweight.
No, sorry, NOW’S launchtime
HAHA, sorry,this slide is just to laugh at their faces.
Duuhhh…
Thanks Grant for the blockage
She looks proud of her trebuchet
She doesn’t look too proud
She looks like she couldn’t care
Bah, short range division
There’s our piece of
Datacounterweight (lbs) distance (yds)
18 15
23 12
23 14
26 15
Inconsistency = bad trebuchet
Trebuchet y = 0.1333x2 - 5.8667x + 77.4
R2 = 0.6667
0
5
10
15
20
0 10 20 30
Counterweight (lbs)
Dis
tan
ce (
yds)
distance(yds)
Poly.(distance(yds))
Trebuchet y = -0.0606x + 15.364
R2 = 0.0202
0
5
10
15
20
0 10 20 30
Counterweight (lbs)
Dis
tan
ce (
yds)
distance(yds)
Linear(distance(yds))
Strong correlation? Yea, pretty close.
Interpretation
Well I think it was pretty cool how all the groups got about the same amount of supplies, and they all varied in sizes and designs very much.
With our trebuchet, I think we could’ve done better with, there’s that word again, CONSISTENCY.
Thanks for having us to this project Mr. T!!
We had tons of fun!!