Post 4: Reflection and Recommendations

Post 1:
Our trebuchet was never shooting accurately before the challenge so we had no idea how it was going to shoot on performance day. It shot a lot better than we thought it would. We were fourth closest in our class at 0.69 meters from the target spot. We got three throws and 0.69 meters was the closest one.
To improve our trebuchet I would have used a sturdier bar to hold the arm. The one that we had couldn't handle the weight on it and sagged in the middle causing some problems. I would have also used a straighter piece of wood for the arm so it would shoot straighter- ours that we used was a little bit warped.
If I could have built a totally new trebuchet, I would have made it higher and not as long so the weight could have picked up more speed. I might've experimented with different pouches and string lengths.I think though that the use of wood for the trebuchet was a good idea- it was easy to build and supported the weight really well.

Post 2:
There were lots of things that went well on our trebuchet. The use of wood as the building material was a smart choice as well as an easy one. It made the building a lot easier but still supported the weight with ease. Our whole design worked really well. Other trebuches rocked a lot when they shot but ours stayed fairly solid on the ground. Our pouch and string length worked perfectly. We never had any trouble with the ball not staying in the pouch or not coming out of the pouch.
Recommendations for future trebuchet builders would be to make your trebuchet out of a material that is accessible and easy to work with for you. Don't make it harder than it needs to be. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help from someone who knows how to build with your material- it makes it way easier. For your pouch, try different styles and figure out what works best, same with the string length. Try not to get too frustrated if it doesn't work- troubles are bound to come up. Focus on working through it and getting it to shoot as good as you can. The biggest thing is if your trebuchet is shooting well and meeting requirements, don't change anything! Sometimes if you change one thing, it can throw everything off.

Posts 3: Performance Day

Post 3:
The theoretical range of our trebuchet was calculated using: 2h(M/m) Our theoretical range was 331.07 meters.
Five reasons why our trebuchet didn't achieve the theoretical range:
1. Friction between the moving parts of the trebuchet
2. Air resistance
3. Wind
4. Warped bar that the arm rotated on
5. Bad release from the pouch

Post 4:
Our trebuchet didn't perform up to our expectations on distance competition day. It started off strong but with each shot went a shorter distance. It started off shooting over 40 meters but by the end it was shooting under 25 meters. It had never given us any trouble before so we fiddled around with the weight and the angle of release and got it shooting mostly over 25 meters. Our average out of five shots was 27.85 meters.

For the accuracy part of the competition we plan to take out all the weights from our bucket. That will reduce the weight from 14.97 kg to 3.63kg. We also didn't pull the arm down as far- reducing the distance that the counterweight has to fall and slowing down the release. The rest of the tebuchet will stay the same.

Our trebuchet set and ready to shoot for distance.

Janelle and I and our trebuchet on competition day. Picture compliments of Mr. Bertram.