The Similarities Between Trebuchets And Catapults

507 Words2 Pages

Although many think of trebuchets and catapults as two different things, trebuchets are actually a type of catapult. While a standard catapult is any device that will throw an object by means of tension, a trebuchet throws and object by means of gravity from a counterweight that will fling an object by means of stored up energy, which is known as potential energy. Modern trebuchets usually use metal weights or sandbags as the counterweight, but, medieval armies would use anything from bags of stone to crates of animals. When the trebuchet was first used in ancient China during the fourth century, it was highly preferred over the standard catapult. When trebuchets were first becoming popular, armies and army leaders were gravitated towards them, because of their design. It was easier to get a more accurate measurement of the landing point of the ammunition. A trebuchet can throw an object by using a counterweight on the …show more content…

While a counterpoise trebuchet uses just a counterweight to launch its projectile, a traction trebuchet uses straight man-power to launch the projectile. I have the throwing arm attached to the base of the trebuchet by using metal hooks and a heavy-duty rubber band. When the hook is released, the ball attached to the throwing arm will launch in a forward arch. The base is Two feet long and one foot wide with a support beam in the middle. The trebuchet is two feet tall and the throwing arm is forty-five inches long and attached to two support beams with a metal rod acting as the fulcrm. The side of the throwing arm with the projectile is roughly twice as long as the side with the counterweight; if both sides of the throwing arm were of equal length, the side with the weight would bend and break the fulcrum. The counterweight, which is trying to pull the other side down, is creating and storing Potential Energy. The equation for potential energy

Show More
Related

  • Science Olympiad: The Boomilever

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before continuing much further, there are a few terms that need to be defined. First and foremost are the two main forces that act upon the boomerang, tension and compression. Tension is the force acting upon the side of the boomilever that is being “pulled” away from the wall, or the top side. On the other end of the spectrum is compression, which is the force acting on the side of the boomilever being pushed toward the wall, or the bottom of the device. Generally, compression is the main concern in building.

    Read More

  • Revolutionary Artillery in the Revolutionary War

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Revolutionary War, the Artillery assets that were available were a combination of cannons, mortars and howitzers. There were two types of cannons used at this time. The Field Guns, which were lightweight and easier to move, and the Siege Guns, which were much heavier and less mobile. The cannons utilized three different types of rounds. The rounds were solid shot, grapeshot, and canister. The solid shot rounds were used for structures, buildings, and ships. The grapeshot, which was a canvas bag of lead or iron balls, was ideal for long range personnel. The canister shot was a wooden cartridge carrying iron balls and when fired would explode like a shotgun for shorter range personnel. The cannons were mostly low trajectory as opposed the mortars which were high trajectory and fire bomb shells. The mortar was based on a wooden platform and a wedge of wood was used to incline the front of the barrel. There were land service mortars and sea service mortars. The land service being more mobile and the sea service much heavier and were permanently positioned on ships. By the time of the Revolutionary War there were nine types of land service mortar and four types of sea service mortar. They ranged from 4.4 to 13 inches. The rounds fired out of mortars were designed to fire at a high trajecto...

    Read More

  • The Trebuchet

    1890 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Roman Siege Weapons

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Trebuchet

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    The word trebuchet comes from the French word that means “to tumble” or “to fall over,” which is precisely what the trebuchet aims to do (Farrell, 2006). The trebuchet catapult first began appearing in the 6th century (“How to Build”, 2012). However, these early trebuchets were powered by humans pulling on ropes in order to lunch a projectile. What we would officially recognize as a trebuchet that uses gravity acting on a counterweight to launch a projectile started appearing in the 12th century (“How to Build”, 2012). Trebuchets were invented because castles,

    Read More

  • The Trebuchet

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Civil War

    1591 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mortars have a very pronounced arc of flight. They have a relatively low muzzle velocity and are unsuitable for direct fire. Their principle value comes from being able to lob shells behind an obstacle such as a fort or a hill. Unlike modern mortars, those used during the Civil War were bulky devises and mounted at a fixed angle usually between 45 and 50 degrees. They were not very accurate and depended solel...

    Read More

  • Crossbows

    381 Words  | 1 Pages

    Crossbows can vary a lot in design and construction. They range from 50 to 400 lbs. in draw weight. They can be very small hand held pistols or rifles, which can fire rapidly and accurately with pinpoint accuracy up to 60 yards and kill ranges up to 100 yards. The larger bows with 400lb. draw weights could have ranges of over 400 yards they could fire large arrows, rocks and other types of projectiles accurately while staying well out of range of most enemy fire. These bows were built of large beams and sat on wheels so that 2 men could change the position of the bow easily. These bows were very powerful but were also very slow in loading and firing. They had mechanical winches, which were hand cranked to draw the bowstring back. It took two men to run these bows called siege machines.

    Read More

  • How Did Mongols Use Gunpowder Technology

    459 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gunpowder is an important invention of China. When the Mongols conquered China and established the Yuan dynasty, they helped the diffusion of that technology by utilizing it in their future military campaigns. The Mongols utilized gunpowder based weapons in order to siege well-fortified cities and tear down enemy walls. With time there became three so-called “gunpowder empires,” which include the Safavid, Ottoman and Mughal empires. They were called that due to their heavy reliance on gunpowder based weapons. Additionally, they accomplished multiple successful campaigns with gunpowder-based weapons, which led to the expansion of their respective empires. With the inclusion of gunpowder weapons, and also growing populations, empires also established professional standing armies. It led to wars of attrition, in which armies focused more on size. It became more important for empires to have armies with a lot of infantry, than having a smaller number of experienced warriors. Having a standing army lead to empires increasing taxes, which were in part due to empires

    Read More

  • Medieval Weapons

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...e went into motion. Possible projectiles of the trebuchet were living prisoners, jugs of Greek fire, rocks, and animals. Another large weapon of siege was used primarily in storms, the battering ram. In its early stages, the ram was no more than a hefty beam with a mass of metal attached to the end. Men would hoist the cumbersome boom onto their shoulders and run into a wall or door as many times as needed until the surface under attack gave way. In the Middle Ages, it was developed into more of a machine, for the ram hung from the center of a tent under which the men operating the ram could hide. The ram could be swung like a pendulum much more easily than having to constantly run back and forth. Also, castle guards often poured hot oil or other things onto the ram and its engineers. The tent, which was on wheels, protected the men and the battering ram as well.

    Read More

  • Medieval Weaponry

    1430 Words  | 3 Pages

    Soldiers in medieval Europe used a variety of weapons. A soldier's choice of armor depended on the time during which he lived, the type of fighting he did, and his economic situation. For hand-to-hand combat soldiers typically used swords, axes, clubs, and spears. Crossbows, bows, and javelins served as projectiles for most of the medieval period, though firearms had begun to appear toward the end of the era. Siege weapons such as catapults helped armies break into castles and towns. Many soldiers wore armor to protect them from opponents' weapons. This armor evolved from mail made of metal links to full plate armor as projectile weapons improved.

    Read More

  • Essay On Catapult

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    The trebuchet is used with a long wooden arm refreshed on a hinge point, which acted as a big level. A bullet was placed on one end and soldiers in this earlier form of the trebuchet pushed on slings devoted to the other end to fundamentals swing the arm around and throw the

    Read More

  • Gettysburg

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    When in combat, both sides had the same kind of artillery. Soldiers used muskets and small handguns and generals on the other hand would ride on horseback with a sword and pistol. Another type of weaponry that was used were cannons. Even though cannons were much more powerful, muskets were easier due to the fact that they were portable and fired rounds quicker.

    Read More

  • Collisions on Momentum: The Law of Conservation of Momentum

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    This experiment could have been more accurate if the angle of the slope could have been lowered to stop the trolley from accelerating. The experiment could have also been improved by taking greater care in making sure that the weights didn’t fall off of the trolley after they collided with the trolley. Better weights should have been found for the 1.5kg as the ones used had to be tied together to reach the sufficient weight, thus making them more likely to fall off the trolley. Conclusion: The hypothesis was proven correct for the 500g weight, however, the hypothesis was not proven correct for the 1kg and 1.5kg weights as the momentum before the collision did not equal to the momentum after the collision.

    Read More

  • Fundamentals of Building Construction: The Concrete

    1653 Words  | 4 Pages

    Reinforced concrete is stronger than basic concrete. Steel reinforcing bars known as rebar is incorporated in the concrete structure to act together in resisting the force. The steel reinforcing bars absorbs tensile and compression because plain conc...

    Read More

More about The Similarities Between Trebuchets And Catapults

Open Document