Physics of a Trebuchet
Entry posted by SwagDragon15
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Although this might be a little late I figured it was still worth posting :glee: Well as you may know out catapult did not perform as quite well as we had hoped, with a distance of 38 yards, however it did much better than we expected based on out testing. We chose to take the trebuchet path, and luckily for us it earned 3rd place which is much better than out practice would have hypothesized, with our furthest launch only around twenty yards! But we didn't win thanks to Joe, Andres and company's crazy gadget that did absolute work despite looking so conspicuous. Although my distress is clearly there, it is not what is truly important, and this post will focus on the physics behind the launch. Now you see a trebuchet is actually two things, a lever (first class because the load is lifted up while the force is applied and moves that side down) and a sling combined into one. When the key is released the sling accelerates in a parabolic shape. Given the velocity formula v=dx/dt=gt, we can get the integration of x=gt^2/2. If we think about the velocity in respect to time we would get y=v^2/2g, which gives us the height of the turning point in the projectile's parabolic path. Fun stuff my friend, fun stuff. :fight)
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