Trebuchet Challenge: Reflection and Futurre Recommendations

Reflecting on the Trebuchet Challenge, I thought it was an overall enjoyable experience. We had a great group that worked very well together. We were innovative and went outside the box in trying a new design.

Looking back on the Trebuchet Challenge, I felt that our innovative design was what made this project so fun. Our group tried a risky design that was relatively unheard of. I think in the end it paid off. Our design presented many challenges but in the end was rewarding.

As for the Trebuchet Challenge going forward, I would suggest a couple of things. For the challenge itself, I would suggest possibly trying different projectiles such as golf balls or baseballs. For future students, I would suggest doing as our group did and trying something new. If you do, it will lead to more successful challenges and even better results.

Post Competition Reflection

After competing in the Trebuchet Challenge, it is possible to draw a number of conclusions. All in all, I was pleased with the way our trebuchet performed. For the distance part of the competition, our trebuchet struggled with consistency. Our maximum distance was quite good but our average distance suffered due to a few poor throws. As for the accuracy part of the competition, I was disappointed with the outcome. Our trebuchet performed alright but did not place well in the standings.

If I were to change anything about our existing trebuchet, I would modify it so that the design specifications were much more precise so as the trebuchet would perform more consistantly. I feel that one of our biggest problems came with the fact that some of our measurements werem't as precise as they could have been and this lead to inconsistancies in our trebuchet's performance.

If our group was to construct a new trebuchet, I would definitely stick with our current design, but I would put a strong emphasis on precision when constructing the trebuchet. I feel that if our trebuchet was constructed with greater precision, it would have performed much better.

Trebuchet Blog Post #1

So far, our group has completed work in order to prepare ourselves for the building of our full scale trebuchet. We have built a miniature size cardboard trebuchet that has helped us identify some of the physics concepts behind this challenge project, such as projectile motion and the effects gravity has on it. Our trebuchet is subject to two types of factors; enviromental and performance. Examples of environmental factors that will affect the performance would include gravity and air resistance. Some performance based factors would include length of the throwing arm, length of the sling and mass of the counterweight. A combination of these factors will affect how our trebuchet performs in full scale.

Below is what our small scale trebuchet looked like.

Medical Physics Project

For this project I am working with Riley and Quinn. We have chosen to research PET/ PET CT scans. So far we have divide the work load fairly evenly. So far we have all contributed to research, with Quinn bringing some papaers from home. Riley has been working on our PowerPoint presentation while Quinn and I have been working on the written repot.

Egg Drop Launch Day

Wednesday, February 23 was our Egg Drop Challenge Test Day. Several teams competed to see whose container was best. Our container finished second with the dimensions 25cm by 24cm by 23.5cm. Its mass was 95.67 grams without the mass of the egg. It took our egg 1.03 seconds to fall from 5 meters off the ground. Our egg was in perfect condition after the fall and our container scored 209.05 eared egg points.

       Upon reflection, I felt that the biggest reflection that we faced when constructing our container was the 25x25x25 dimension constraints. I felt that our design could've been more effective if we were allowed to expand the dimensions of our top piece of cardboard. Our design was geared toward a large surface area to increase drag while falling. Therefore if we were allowed to use larger dimensions, our design could've been more effective.
    As for the most effective part of our design, I felt that the straw "tipi" was the most the most effective component. I chose this because it significantly reduced the amount of force applied to the part of our container actually holding the egg itself. Also, the fact that our container was very light was another effective part of our design because it scored us a fairly large earned egg point total. I would conclude that the durability of our container was the least effective part of our design. I would say this because although it survived the one fall on test day, it would be severely compromised for the next drop if there was one.
   If we were to design our container to hold two eggs, it would be significantly different. The main modification I would make would be making the container that holds the egg or eggs itself larger. I would also add a lot more padding just for added insurance.
   In conclusion, I was extremely pleased with the way our container performed. Even though I was skeptical, our container was successful. I feel we had a unique and well designed container that ultimately carried the egg without any trouble. Overall I enjoyed the building of the container and though it was a great challenge project.
   

  
  

Egg Drop Test Day

Yesterday in class we had the opportunity to test our prototypes for the Egg Drop Challenge. Overall, we had a successful day with our prototype, breaking only one egg due to Murphy's Law. During the class we made some slight modifications to our design and by the end of the period our prototype was performing consistently well. After the initial broken egg, our prototype performed excellent and Cody and I are feeling optimistic for Launch Day.

In-Class Blog

We began class today by watching another video on the risks and dangers of posting to the internet. We also changed some more settings and added the Clustrmaps gadget to our blogs. We concluded by commenting on our classmate's blogs.