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Physics

A group of students designed and built a large metal trebuchet with a heavy counterweight for a physics lab. They tested the trebuchet and made adjustments to improve its performance. The relationship between average force from the counterweight and firing velocity is explored, with greater counterweight mass resulting in higher acceleration and velocity of projectiles.

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Ben McAvoy
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37 views4 pages

Physics

A group of students designed and built a large metal trebuchet with a heavy counterweight for a physics lab. They tested the trebuchet and made adjustments to improve its performance. The relationship between average force from the counterweight and firing velocity is explored, with greater counterweight mass resulting in higher acceleration and velocity of projectiles.

Uploaded by

Ben McAvoy
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ben McAvoy p.

3a Physics Trebuchet Lab Writeup

Concept and Design: When we originally brainstormed for ideas of what we wanted to do, the first thing we said was we wanted to make it big. Our team consisted of me, Preston, Cameron, and Lance, and Cameron had all the resources and tools we needed to make a full metal catapult, with an obscenely heavy counterweight, so that's what we decided we would aim for. When we got into the garage and started working we decided to use 2 crane supports for a boat crane for the trebuchet, and the rest would be crafted from metal pipes with different diameters, and other rectangular metal pieces would also be machined for the throwing arm. We would also be using an olympic weight set that Cameron had around his house for the counterweight, the entire weight set. Welded onto the supports were 2 3 long 2 metal pipes, which would hold a 30 long 1 3/4 axle. On the outside of this axle and between the two supports was a 30 long 2 diameter sleeve, that the actual arm would attach to. This sleeve rotates around the inner pipe and allows the arm to pivot. The firing mechanism consisted of a bolt and 2 metal pieces bent at a 90 angle. The bolt went through the metal plates and the hook on the end of the throwing arm and held it in place. To fire the trebuchet the bolt had a rope attached to it, and upon removal whatever you placed in the canvas sack at the end of the sling would go about 100m.

Testing: Our first day of testing did not go well at all. Our major downfall was that we attached both ends of the rope on the sling to the end of the throwing arm. We also only had used a rope with a well placed towel that the projectile sat in. Almost every one of the tests failed. We tried throwing everything, but after many tries and only one successful throw, we called it a day. After the first test we made a few design changes. We had made a better sling out of rope and canvas. The canvas had been sewn so that it would have 2 holes for the rope to slide through, we also added all the rest of the weight and added a release mechanism for the sling. The mechanism was a simple metal rod attached to the end of the throwing arm. We then fixed only one end of the sling to the tip of the throwing arm and on the other end we put a ring that would go around the new metal rod on the end of the arm. The idea behind this was that while the trebuchet was firing, the ring would slip off the metal rod, and release the projectile. After these adjustments were made we went and did more testing, this time it was successful. Everything worked smoothly, and we made no further modifications. The next testing day we spent throwing whatever we could find, or we thought would be fun to throw.

Relationship between Average Force and Firing Velocity: In its most basic terms, a trebuchet is a teeter totter with one short end with a lot of downward force, and one long end with a negligible downward force. The difference of these two forces is what is known as the net force, or the actual total force acting on the end of the throwing arm which in this case could also be called the average force. Since the downward force on the short end of the arm is so many times greater than the downward force on the long arm, a new upward force is generated at the end of the long arm, which is what makes the trebuchet work. In the case of our trebuchet the weight of the counterweight was 2450 Newtons (F=ma;

m=250kg, a=9.8m/s^2). Newtons 3rd law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. By this standard, there is an equal and opposite force of ~2450 N on the end of the long part of the arm. However since the throwing arm has negligible mass in the face of the massive 250kg counterweight, there has to be be an insane amount of acceleration, so that the overall force would equal out on both ends (Newtons 3rd law). This is where firing velocity comes into play. The upward force and acceleration of the projectile is directly proportional to the weight on the short end of the arm, since the acceleration of gravity is constant. In other words, the greater the mass of the counterweight (Average Force), the greater the acceleration of the projectile, and therefore the greater the Firing velocity.

Works Cited

Henderson, Tom. "Newton's First Law of Motion." Physics Classroom. N.p., 2011. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. <http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/u2l1a.cfm>. Henderson, Tom. "Newton's Third Law of Motion." Physics Classroom. N.p., 2011. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. <http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/u2l4a.cfm>. "Net Force." Zona Land Education. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 Nov. 2011. <http://zonalandeducation.com/mstm/physics/mechanics/forces/netForce/netForce.htm>. "Trebuchet." Wikipedia. N.p., 11 Nov. 2011. Web. 24 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet>.

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