Trebuchet at PSC

Students, as part of the Student Engagement and Enhancement program, built three Trebuchet "engines" this term as part of Paul Hinrichs' Physics Course.

And today, November 20, I took photographs and video of the testing of the Trebuchets the students constructed.


Dr. Paul Hinrichs, who teaches the Physics Class, sent me the following description of the project I filmed:

The physics class built three types of trebuchet this year.  A trebuchet in general is stored potential energy in a counter weight transferred to kinetic energy of a projectile.  

A traditional trebuchet has the counter weight on one end of a throwing arm and a sling with projectile on the other end. The

counter weight then swings through the frame, launching the projectile. Extra motion in the arm after release is lost transfer energy--we made one but it had to be scavenged to fix another.  

The second type of trebuchet is a floating arm trebuchet.  The counter weight falls straight down and the throwing arm glides along a rail through the frame throwing the projectile.  

The final type is a multi-arm trebuchet.  This type results in the

least amount of lost potential energy. The weight falls straight down spinning a multi-radius throwing arm around a fixed axle. The multiple arms allow for an efficient transfer of energy to the projectile.  This type of design has tossed golf balls over half a mile with very little counter weight.  

The projectiles today consisted of  Osage Oranges and small gourds; enjoy the HD Video of the event and even some slow motion: