Proof of Efficacy of Trebuchet

In this project our goal was to design a catapult or trebuchet that could launch a
ball the furthest. However, there were restrictions. The first restriction was that none of
our dimensions could be longer than a meter. Another restriction is that it had to be
portable by only one person, meaning only one person is able to carry it. Lastly, our
trebuchet had to have two legs that hold up an axle and a lever arm with both a load
and an effort end. Once we knew the goal in mind and talked about the restrictions we
were ready to design.
Our design is simple and works very well. Our class help us make the ideal
trebuchet by helping you figure out what variables needed to be changed for making it
more successful. Then we decided to make some modifications.
Rubber Bands: We had started with one rubber band but it didn't go very far
because oe rubber band wasn't enough force. So we decided to modify it to 3
rubber bands for optimal force making it go further.
Load to Effort Ratio: To test this we drilled 9 holes throughout the arm, that
were evenly distributed 5 cm apart. We tested the load to effort ratio by doing 3
tests at 7 of the holes, and measured the distance of how far it traveled when we
launched it. We found that a 1:1 ratio is the best for getting the projectile the
furthest.
Nail angle: We found that a nail angle of 10 backwards gave us the greatest
outcome.
Higher axel: Groups also noticed had a higher axel can help when being
launched.

 Projectile (ball): Our original projectile was 5g but we changed it to 7g because

it traveled further.
String length on projectile: We established that a string length of 40 cm on our
projectile gave our group the optimal launch.
Arm length: The best arm length for the trebuchet is about 47.5 cm, and ours is
48.5 cm long and it works well so I'm sure anything in that range of 47-49 is
good.
Clear paragraph:
Recently we did an experiment where we tweaked the ratio of load to effort on a
trebuchet (by moving the axel from hole to hole) to find the optimal ratio to launch the
projectile (a ball) the farthest. We found out that when the load to effort ratio was 1:1,
the projectile went the farthest. To determine this, we took 3 trials for 7 of the 9 holes on
the arm. We found that when the axel was in the middle (a 1:1 ratio) the projectile went
the farthest: it traveled 29.6 meters, which was our highest amount of distance covered
out of all the other ratios we tested. With each hole below the 1:1 ratio, the distance
decreased. For example, the last ratio we tested (0.4:1) went just 12.6 meters. Our
experiment was relatively consistent because there was minimal-to-no change in force
(and no other factors changed). Overall, we found that the 1:1 ratio creates a good
balance that transfers the most potential energy (PE) to kinetic energy (KE) out of all of
the trebuchet arms holes.
Calculations (work shown below):
dhoriz: 26.6 m or 87.3 ft
tin air: 1.42 s
Vhoriz: 18.69 m/s or 41.8 mph
Vvert: 6.17 m/s or 13.8
Vtotal: 19.67 m/s or 44 mph
PEspring: 10.02 J
KEball: 1.35 J
dvert: 2.47 m or 8.1 ft
Release point: 18