trebuchet

 The Medieval Trebuchet was similar to a catapult, or stave sling, which was used for hurling heavy stones to smash castle or city walls. The trebuchet was simply an improvement of the catapult over time ensuring that the weapon could inflict the most damage possible. The traction trebuchet is believed to be an ancient war engine, which was invented in China in 300BC. The Trebuchet was designed as a giant catapult, or sling. Missiles thrown from the Trebuchet catapults were deadly. The Trebuchet is generally associated with throwing stones. A Trebuchet could release up to 2000 stones in one day! Trebuchet missiles included the following objects:

▪   Stones

▪   Sharp wooden poles and darts

▪   Fire

▪   Casks of Burning Tar

▪   Burning Sand ( this became trapped inside armor )

▪   Pots of Greek Fire

▪   Dung

▪   Dead, sometime mutilated, bodies

▪   Disease ridden bodies

▪   Body parts

▪   Dead animals

▪   Any rotting matter

▪   Quicklime

catapult

A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines.We typically think of a catapult as something that was used in the Middle Ages to destroy the walls of a castle although it has been used much before that, designed in many different ways over centuries.  Various types of catapults were used by the Chinese, Greeks and Romans.  The Catapult was a large military machine that was used to hurl objects such as rocks and spears. These catapults could generate tremendous force and hurl large objects over long distances. The earliest writings of catapults were that they originated in China around the 3rd and 4th Century BC and this type of early catapult was much like a big crossbow. They stood around 8 feet tall. True that these are catapults but the thing that makes a catapult into the machine we generally consider to be authentic is the development of the swinging arm. This is the arm that holds the bucket and projectile.

Now that the car racing is over, Mr Ward is now starting a new area of work. We are to get into partners and create a catapult. Although i am on exchange until week 3 next term so i am getting given a shorter and modified task. We were given the option to make either a catapult which is easier or a trebuchet which is pretty much a catapult but with an added sling on the back of the device, giving the objet that you are throwing more momentum in the air although these are harder to build as much can go wrong in the design and crafting of them. I would have loved to have the challenge of creating one of these i most likely would have chosen to build the trebuchet as a challenge.

First lesson back and it was race day ! Steph helped me quickly finish my car although i didn't have enough time to solder the wires together. As i think back if i managed my time better i would have had my car done, although i did have one less week then everyone else in the class. I was versing berry who's car looked very good. At the starting line i wasn't very confident and when the cars started both berrys and mine didn't make it to the end, BOTH TIMES! from this experience i learnt many new lessons and that time management is a key factor in designing and creating anything.

I tried my best to finish my new car in the little time that i had but i was unable to as i glued the wheels to close together so that the left front and back wheel were touching and creating friction making the car barley able to move. i tried my best to fix the problem but i did not have enough time. If i faced this problem again i would have stuck by my original car as i would have had a running car to race at the competition but i was running low on time so i decided i would try to fix it when i got back

Today in class we started to test our cars on the track, it was invigorating!
the wheels kept falling off! i tried to make the metal bar connecting both of the back wheels longer but i kept falling apart! i don't know why i had done everything for it to work. so i stared a new one which was a bad idea at the time as i completely forgot that i was going away the week after.

In todays lesson i was deciding on wether to have my batteries sitting on top of my motor or in front having the motor and batteries on separate surface areas. I finally decided on having both the pieces on separate surfaces which i later learnt was a bad mistake because i could have mad my car smaller and faster by putting the batteries on top of my motor. i then put my switch on the bottom of my car as there wasn't enough space on the top then i soldered my wires together and at first i wired them the wrong way so my car was going backwards but Mr Ward just told me to switch the wires around. i thought that it would be an easy job making the car but i was wrong it was very hard getting the right measurements, angles and shape for my car to run and work properly.