The Accuracy of a Trebuchet

Robert Campbell, Ian Steinberg,

Nathan Goldsmith, Gideon Chaffee
Washington Latin Public Charter School
5200 2nd St NW, Washington D.C., 20011

Figure 1: Original Figure 2: Final Figure 5: Figure 6:

Background Design design Results Launching
We used mathematics to figure out the
lengths of each block of wood, the
angle they would be cut at, and the
distance between nails and other
components. We used digital 3D
models to figure out what materials we This is a graph of This is an image
needed and what lengths they needed where the ball hit of us launching
to be to all work together. We analyzed Our original design We fixed the trigger in each launch the trebuchet
contained over 20 mechanism and got
at our first attempts, looked at the data
feet of 2x4, much of the resources down
(where the ball released from, how far it far less useful to 16 ft of 2x4 and a
Summary and Conclusion
it went, how far off to the side it went), than the rest wooden board ● We were at first going for a fully accurate and
powerful trebuchet, but ended up aiming for
and adjusted from there. Our research
an accurate counter weight trebuchet.
mainly consisted of looking at other
● We consistently launched inside the 10 point
trebuchet designs, our classmates’ and circle twice.
the one at mikesenese.com. We then Figure 3: Figure 4:
● Not counting the misfire, we succeeded in
Materials Construction
based our model on the designs that making an accurate Trebuchet.
we looked at, as we didn’t have a great ● If we were doing this again, we would get
idea on where to start originally. heavier weights for more range and give
ourselves more time to work on it.

Research Objectives Acknowledgements and References

We were trying to make an accurate We would like to acknowledge all of our parents,
We cut the 2x4 into We finally put the especially Gideon’s father for helping us with
trebuchet that could go moderately far.
9 pieces, using pieces together and power tools and supplying the majority of our
In the end, our trebuchet was accurate, wood, Nathan’s mother for supplying screws, and
diagonal cuts to get tested the
landing in the circle two out of three the most out of our trebuchet. Ian’s mother for dowels. We used Caleb’s and
times because it misfired once. 16ft of 2x4 mikesenese.com’s trebuchets for inspiration.