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The physics behind a catapult
The science of catapults
The physics behind a catapult
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Humans have always tried to produce inventive and original designs for weapons all over past, which attack an enemy from a good amount of distance. One of the most successful of these weapons being catapult. A number of steps were taken before the catapult was designed, the sling was shaped to overcome the limitations of the weak human arm, hunters and soldiers developed the bow and arrow to advance in aim and velocity. In the long run, with the design of the catapult key improvements in power and precision were achieved. The catapult was first designed by the Greeks around 400 BC. After much upgradation, their catapults were able to throw 60lb rocks five football fields away. The catapult was the first practice of field artillery, which was
used in battles. They were used as barrier machines to surround and blockade a town from an army trying to capture it. Catapults are primeval mechanisms that were used in the military for launching missiles. Catapults were often used to knock down barricades, if an enemy civilization had defensive walls. Catapults were also used to bomb the enemies. But the equipment we used wasn’t as dangerous as the weaponry one described above. This experiment was led by a team of students on a catapult, which is a table-top wooden device, generally used to teach design of experiments. The catapult has numerous controllable factors and a response effortlessly measured in a classroom setting. The purpose of this whole experiment was to ascertain what kind of combination of factors and levels would give the maximum horizontal distance. The objective of our experiment is to conclude how diverse factors affect the horizontal distance in catapults. A detailed analysis of a fractional factorial experiment has been conducted. The experiment has eight factors that might affect the distance the ball travels.
Question 5: “Texts construct characters who represent the best qualities in human nature, as well as those who represent the worst.” Discuss how at least ONE character is constructed in a text you have read or viewed. (Sem 2, 2016)
The population of the whooping cranes most definitely gets affected from precipitation, because the population gets affected negatively with high precipitation levels present, while positively with low precipitation levels. The population of the whooping cranes gets affected this way because if there were high precipitation levels for a year, the hatching success rate drastically decreases from the precipitation, who damages the eggs laid by the cranes. By either breaking the eggs, making the cranes not be present to incubate their eggs, or actually destroying the birds’ nests. Also, the high precipitation levels may even cause a few fatalities, which is a very serious problem involving this particular endangered species. While with low precipitation
First the energy of conservation. The setting of the trebuchet before firing is shown in Fig 1. A heavy counterweight of mass (M) (contained in a large bucket) on the end of the short arm of a sturdy beam was raised to some height while a smaller mass (m) (the projectile), was positioned on the end of the longer arm near or on the ground. In practice the projectile was usually placed in a leather sling attached to the end of the longer arm. However for simplicity, we shall ignore the sling and compensate for this omission by increasing the assumed length of the beam on the projectile’s side. The counterweight was then allowed to fall so that the longer arm swung upward, the sling following, and the projectile was ultimately thrown from its container at some point near the top of the arc. The far end of the sling was attached to the arm by a rope in such a way that the release occurred at a launching angle near the optimum value ( most likely by repeated trials) for the launch height. The launching position is shown in fig.2 where we have assumed that the projectile is released at the moment the entire beam is vertical. In the figures: (a)=height of the pivot, (b)= length of the short arm, (c)= length of the long arm, while (v) and (V) are the velocities of (m) and (M), respectively, at the moment of launching.
Another piece of weaponry that the U.S had made their own version of was the cannons. The cannon was first used in 1861 at Fort Sumter in the U.S Civil War. These were a major upgrade in weaponry as it could help take out big crowds of men and helped so men wouldn’t have to be on the front lines and risk getting killed. Also battles seemed to get quicker because of its strength, but it had some downsides too. These downsides including very bad injuries to the men, also more men would be killed in battles, and finally a lot of cities were destroyed because of it.
Another type of catapult is the Onager. Onagers were used right up to the middle ages with the Trebuchet, when gunpowder and the Cannon were invented and eventually replaced the catapults.
For almost as long as civilizations began they have been fighting against each other. Often times these wars come down to who has the better military equipment. When one army creates an elite war machine another army is sure to soon copy or improve it. For example the U.S. Army Signal Corps purchased the first ever military aircraft in 1902 (Taylor). Two years later the Italians were also using aircrafts. The trebuchet catapult is no exception; it was one of the most destructive military machines of its time (Chevedden, 2000). A trebuchet works by using the energy of a falling counterweight to launch a projectile (Trebuchet). In this research paper I intend to explain the history and dynamics of a trebuchet catapult.
A popular weapon used by both sides was the rifle. Rifles were invented before the Civil War and were greatly used in the War of 1812. However, more types were built and a larger amount was used during the Civil War. Rifles added a spin to bullets for a greater accuracy at longer ranges. Using this weapon, soldiers could fire 400 yards away, as opposed to the average 80 yards (Robertson 50). Rifles were the fastest and hardest weapon of the time. Rifles allowed their bullets to be shot harder and faster towards its target. New inventions, used by the Union more than the Confederate, included Parrott rifles. They were composed of iron. Robert Parker Parrott, an American soldier and inventor, created these weapons, hence the name Parrott rifles. Despite its name, the Parrott rifle was actually a cannon. Its size ranged from 10 to 300 pounders. It was not favored by most because it was considered unsafe (“Civil War Artillery”). Because of its bulkiness and heaviness, it seldom led soldiers to inaccuratel...
Trebuchets earned a reputation for being much more accurate and precise than their onager and catapult counterparts. Not only was this accuracy a benefit, but being based on rotational motion and leverage rather than torsion (spring power) and lacking in a throwing arm stop, the trebuchet proved a much safer alternative for the personnel operating it. Onagers and Mangonels would literally explode on occasion when the torsion proved too great or a crack developed in the throwing arm due to the rapid stops it experienced.
Crossbows are a highly effective weapon for hunting and war even in today's standards. The first records of crossbows are from China in the 6th century BC. The knowledge then spreads slowly to the west into Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, the greatest empire of all times. The crossbow remained the favored weapon of war and hunting in Rome until the 15th century when gunpowder was also introduced from China.
The purpose of the projectile lab is to test the validity of the law of conservation of energy. The application of this law to our everyday lives is a surprisingly complicated process. Conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but that it can be transferred from one form to another. Consider the projectile lab from document A that this essay is based upon. In an ideal experiment, the projectile is isolated from everything except the gravitational field. In this case, the only force acting on the particle is gravity and there are only two forms of energy that are of interest: the energy of the particle due to its motion (defined as kinetic
The invention of gunpowder found its way into the artillery cannons in the fourteenth century, but this job was very dangerous because of the unpredictable reaction of the fired explosives. The early production of gunpowder was hampered by the cannon’s slow rate of fire, inability to travel swiftly, lack of aiming capability, and confusion on the mixture. The barrels were one to three inches in diameter and some were even mounted on the bottom of carriages. The development of gunpowder is momentous in history, because it marks the invention of modern warfare.
The catapult history started when men thought of the idea of shooting a missile at a target. And then it became more advanced. For example the theory of the sling shot operated the same.
“Volley Guns” (Chivers, 2010, p.26) or also known as “Organ Guns” (Ellis, 1975, p.10) were first attempts at increasing firepower by adding several barrels at the firing itself, rather than simply attempting to increase the rate of fire. “Gunsmiths had long ago learned to place barrels side by side on frames to create firearms capable of discharging projectiles in rapid succession. These unwieldy devices, or volley guns, were capable in theory of blasting a hole in a line of advancing soldiers” (Chivers, 2010, p.26). An example of such weapons can be seen on July 28, 1835 when Giuseppe Fieshi unleashed terror on King Louis-Phillipe in Paris, France. He fired his 25 barrel “volley gun”, killing 18 of the king's entourage and grazing the King's skull. The weapon was ineffective however. Four of the barrels failed and another four ruptured. Two other barrels had exploded inside, grievously wounding Giuseppe. (Chivers, 2010, p. 27)
The system and technique of supplying an arrow with kinetic energy through the tension of limbs has been improved with the crossbow. The big catapults took up once again the principle of throwing stones. It all changed with the invention of the gunpowder. Cannons, guns and handheld weapons assumed the role of bow and arrow. Now, the warlike intention behind the long-distance effect went even more into the foreground.
A weapon, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is defined as “a thing designed or used to inflict bodily harm or physical damage”. Due to the fact that humans have always fought and killed each other, it is hard to determine an exact time in which weapons were first used, but according to ancient cave paintings dating back from 10,000 to 5,000 BC weapons such as bows were used. Over centuries weapons steadily advanced until the 16th century when guns were invented. In the beginning of the 19th century, a man by the name of Sir William Congreve engineered the first rocket used in warfare. The rocket was not a very good one, it lacked accuracy, but because of a need to have the best and most powerful weapon, improvements and other designs were created which lead to the first super weapons being built.