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.