Trebuchet Essay

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The trebuchet, following the catapult, the trebuchet was capable of launching 400 pound projectiles hundreds of feet. This engine of war was created for one purpose, lay siege to an enemy castle. Recent discoveries indicate that the first trebuchet could have been invented as early as 300 BCE in what is now China, this version is thought to have been a rope based trebuchet with groups of military men using upper body strength in order to lob the projectile. The trebuchet reached Europe approximately 700 years later in 400 CE and was used mostly by the French as opposed to the Anglo-Saxons (Trebuchet). This was when the rope pulled design was improved into the counterweight system. The counterweight system used a large weight, usually a large …show more content…

The most common and historical example was a large boulder, typically 200-400 pounds, but over the course of this engine’s use many other objects have been used to wage war with the trebuchet. One deadly example of what was used were a bundle of sharpened stakes, when launched they would unbundle and due to the aerodynamics would naturally point forward, due to the weight of such a projectile it would be unblockable by say a shield, armor, or a tree. Another possible projectile was greek fire, sticky oil set on fire that could not be extinguished with water, also burning sand was used because it would seep into the cracks of …show more content…

The invention of the trebuchet in China, 300 BCE, required that the Inventors of the trebuchet systems had an advanced understanding of Newton’s second law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but the trebuchet was invented about 2000 years before Isaac Newton was even born. This goes to show that Isaac Newton in fact did not discover Newton’s second law, he only put it into word and documented it. The inventor also had to possess an advanced understanding of tension and friction because the guide chute was frictionless to prevent inhibiting the projectile's speed, and an understanding of tension was required because the projectile will only vertically escape the guide chute when the tension on the sling exceeds the projectile’s own

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