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.

today in design futures i started the practical part of my motor car. It was very hard to cut the bottom of my car as the plastic was a weird cut and it was hard to get straight lines and edges for the base of the car. I fixed the problem by sanding down the sides so that they were all straight and even, after that i took the plastic part off my wheels for less friction. i made the parts for my wheels and stuck them on. one of the main problems i had with my wheels was i never got the right length for my metal bar which you then attach the wheels to. The wheels were never on far enough and my whole car fell apart every time i raced it.

Today in df we got given the criteria for what we need to complete in this upcoming term, we have to create a motorised car in which we have to design it so it will travel at the fastest speed possible so that we can win the race at the end of the term. To make your car go the fastest speed possible you have to consider the aerodynamics, i am going to put a plastic sheet over to make the wind go straight over the car. i have also decided to make my car base out of a light material and take the tracks off the wheels. but i still need to experiment :)

So far i am enjoying the area that we are completing,  it is a but hard but i have never really been good at pro desktop, although i feel as though i am learning more and more skills each day.

today in design futures i finished off the rest of my pro desktop products and have moved on to my personalised iPhone, so far it is going good but i am having a few technical troubles. With the troubles that i am having I'm sure i can ask Mr Ward about but for some reason things on my phone just keep disappearing. Next lesson i will continue with my phone and start to print off my other products that i have created such as the clock, calculator and wheel.

today we did excersises working on getting back our pro desktop skills starting with making a 3D cube which we put letters on each of the cubes surface. I found this difficult at first but i got some help and now can do it with ease. So far i am enjoying this bit of work

today mr ward gave us a brief talk on pro desktop whisk will be what we are learning for the rest of the term and it will also be our sext unit of assessment. we are to design a torch, which is suited for woman, i am thinking of attaching a lipgloss at the end of the torch, this is a great idea and im going to make my torch aqua blue cause thats my favourite colour

my partner keeley was away for the making and speech of the oral but she did help in many ways. :)

Keeley and my resort turned out very well we were not sure of how it would look but overall i am happy with the outcome i need to add some trees and umbrellas to the the sand but that is about it and then were done. we were not happy with our water until it fully set where it looked very architecturally sound.

keeley and i have also created the sand and have placed it down, we put sand, yellow paint and pva glue into the mix, it has turned out very successfully and i am very happy of our works progress so far. it is looking very professional

We are going to make our building out of cardboard and cover it in paddle pop sticks and gloss it to make it look nice. we are also planning to put solar panels on top of our buildings so that it is a energy efficient hotel and it can save money and help the environment. we are going for a Balinese modern look.

we originally planned to do a very complex design in the snow, but as we started to create our project we figured out that with the limited amount of time we have that we wouldn't be able to make it in time so we changed out idea to a beach resort as we figured it would be easier to make and design.

today in design futures we found out that we didn't like the colour of the water as it was a light blue and we were quite dissapoited with the turn out of the water, so Keeley and I made a thinner darker layer of the water which was clear so when we applies it to the layer underneath it made it look more like a beach and now we are very happy with the water

Keeley and i have found that our original idea for a hotel is to hard to complete and make so we are changing from a snow village to a beach resort. All though i like the snow idea alot the hotel didnt work out the beach idea was oure back up so lucky we thought of that. We have started using the router making the area where the beach will be, next lesson we are organising to put the glue into the carved out area. We still need to figure out the color of the sea but.

router

today in df we learnt how to use the router, it would be useful in our hotel as keeley and i are thinking of doing a spa and a pool at our hotel, we are either going to have a beach hotel or a snow hotel. i am looking forward to creating this assignment. the router cuts out parts of wood creating a 3D kind of look

time management

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week8

Week 9

Holidays

Week 1

Week 2

Task 1- Time management plan

Work

Work Together

Due on blog

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

Ideation

Work together

Work together

Put on blog

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

Task 2 practical

Work together

Work together

Final Touches

DUE

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

Task 3- environmental report

Homework

Homework

Homework

Homework

Homework

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

Finalizing

DUE

Task 4 – oral evaluation

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

Practice oral

DUE

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

CAMP

HOLIDAYS

Working Together

Assessments Due

Camp

Holidays

Homework