trebuchet counterweight ratio

Now, lets examine what happens if we modify the length of the sling by 10% using a parametric sweep. Figure 2 raises several questions about designing a trebuchet. the side of the tape the projectile landed, we just looked at the meter tape and This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Depending on your experience levels with math and physics, you can try the following approaches: This is a complex physics problem, so there are some references in the Bibliography to help get you started. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. - History behind the trebuchet, http://www.ripcord.ws/theory.html Since they could be mounted on towers they would also outrange the attackers machine. Figure 2, below, shows a diagram of a trebuchet with the main parts labeled. The trebuchet is an ancient siege engine used for throwing large rocks. . [3] If you want to launch items of various weights, you can set up your trebuchet with a bucket or bag to hold and adjust the counterweight. 2020 by History University. http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/other/trebuchet.html - Plans and directions for building a small trebuchet, http://www.tbullock.com/trebuchet.html Bernhard Kast is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Machines Power Source. I added a cover for the opening to keep kids from adding or removing things. Military History Visualized subscribestar, Military History Visualized Merchandise. How long should the arm of a trebuchet be? What is the best ratio for a trebuchet? A golf ball projectile (1.62 oz) should fire best with 13.46 lbs of counterweight - and a 14 lb bowling ball should have 1862 lbs pulling on the other side of the arm to reach maximum distance. If you search online, there are many different plans and designs for building a trebuchet. The ratio between the counterweight and the payload is important, and this may dictate the size of your trebuchet. Scrohammer happily hurls these wee glass spheres of doom a surprising distance of 40 feet. (2006, Oct. 12) Military Technology., [8] R. Meyer, Column One; How Far Can a Piano Fly?, [10] D. Moe. A trebuchet works by using the energy of a falling (and hinged) counterweight to launch a projectile (the payload), using mechanical advantage to achieve a high launch speed. You may print and distribute up to 200 copies of this document annually, at no charge, for personal and classroom educational use. That's a weight ratio of 1:110. (France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, p. 121) Something that was not the case with the Counter-weight Trebuchet, so lets take a closer look at it. The counterweight should be 75 to 100 times the weight of the projectile. L2 is the distance between the pivot and the sling's attachment point (m). Is there anything heavier than a 100 stack of stone (13.00 "weight") that can be used as a counter? This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Once you have derived an equation for the range of a trebuchet based on the physical parameters above, can you come up with any design guidelines or rules of thumb for designing a trebuchet with the best possible range? Lets see if this holds true for the trebuchet model. At Acre, Richard used very hard stones brought from the West, which were so unusual that they were specially shown to Saladin. (France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, p. 124) A 1:1 sling length to throwing arm ratio builds up the best amount of speed for the projectile. To fix A trebuchet is a medieval stone-throwing war engine. http://imgur.com/CntygEE A nice working trebuchet to throw around small stones, sweets or whatever Use some coins to fill up the counter weight. Why is it a complicated design? - user21033 Mar 24, 2013 at 16:03 Add a comment 0 To summarize, there were two main types of trebuchet that were used during the middle Ages. The traction Trebuchet or Mangonel, which was adopted by the Byzantine empire some 100 years after their first recoded use in China, relying on man power to pull ropes and weights to thrown the projectile via the long swinging arm, a very time consuming and some what inconstant tool. Never "dry fire" the trebuchet - always load a projectile to balance the firing mechanism. The plot reveals that deviations of the order of 5 from this optimum only affect the throwing distance by a few meters. L3 is the length of the sling (m). How high off the ground should the pivot be? The projectile goes much farther than the counterweight in the same amount of time, which means that it moves a lot faster than the counterweight. A trebuchet has a lever arm with a large, heavy counterweight on one end and a smaller projectile on the other end. Yet, this depictions seems to be a big over exaggerated. Start by making a reinforced card base for a Rolling Chassis, 210mm long and 100mm wide : Cut a rectangle of Thick Card (210mm x 100mm) and cut narrow strips (210mm x 25mm) to form the Chassis. For centuries, the trebuchet was the most powerful war machine in the world. Three parts. The most efficient way for any counterweight to respond to the force of gravity is by falling in . Before the addition of the sling, the crew had to move the entire trebuchet to change the direction of the trajectory. 2 stacks of fire arrows are the same. One nonfictional and historically notable trebuchet is War Wolf (known to the English soldiers at the time as Ludgar). The main advantages of the traction trebuchet were that it was faster and cheaper to build and needed no specialists, unlike the counterweight trebuchet. (France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, p. 124), Note that trebuchets were not only used in the offense, quite on the contrary, there were also used effectively by defenders. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3627759. you can make your own counterweight (i used old 1.25 lb plates) the peg for the counterweight is just under 1.1 in. Assembly video: The Chinese needed so much power for the trebuchet that they had up to 250 solders pulling on ropes to operate the machine [6]. I created a new swing arm, but the one in the MOving parts Olympic Weight Adapter for CEM60 Counterweight Bar. Conan Exiles How To Make Trebuchet, Ammo, and Damage Test!https://www.twitch.tv/cainebourneCheck out our server and play with us!YogsPlayground IP 162.251.1. Edward called upon his master castle builder, James of St. George to oversee to construction of a massive trebuchet that would be able to hurl 300 pound projectiles at the walls. The Hinged Counterweight Trebuchet (HCW) - a standard trebuchet. Licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. What tools and safety equipment do you have access to? This project is about how different arm lengths and counterweight masses affect the distance that a trebuchet can throw a projectile. What real-world things (like air resistance, or how exactly the payload is released from the sling) were difficult to account for in your calculations or simulations? When the beam is quickly rotated by applying force to the opposite end of . Enjoy! Also, the newfound stability meant that the trebuchet did not have to be repositioned after every shot, so firing time improved to about twice per hour [6]. Trebuchets have appeared in several films and TV shows, such as The Return of the King (2003); Marco Polo (20142016); and even in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), where a cow was catapulted from inside the castle walls toward an unsuspecting King Arthur! The fulcrum of the lever (usually an axle) is supported by a high frame, and the counterweight is suspended from the short arm of the lever. Although, the counterweight-trebuchet was quite a feat in engineering, its influence on warfare was limited and the balance between offense and defense was not altered significantly. Feed some string through the hole and tie the bucket in place. Some medieval trebuchets had beams of up to 10 meters and could throw stones of 100 kg as far as 300 meters [1]. With the sling in place, the crew just has to change the angle of the sling and the projectile will be aimed at its new target. Because we drilled the Gurstelle once made a large trebuchet with a 500-pound (226-kilogram) counterweight that was still only powerful enough to launch a small cantaloupe. Drill a small hole into the back end of the swing arm about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the end. Edit Rate (0) Tags Discuss History Files . Another error that could have occurred was the axle Most of these items were meant not to destroy walls, but to humiliate the enemy, taint their water supplies, and spread death and disease. and don't have more than a 1:45 ratio of object mass to counterweight mass. The machine is generally associated with hurling boulders at a castle wall to bring it down, but trebuchets have also been used to throw Greek fire and wreak all kinds of havoc. You can fix this by pressing 'F12' on your keyboard, Selecting 'Document Mode' and choosing 'standards' (or the latest version Toystub Trebuchet Kit Puzzle 3D Wood Puzzle Wooden Models for Teen. (Hill, Donald R.: Trebuchets, in: France, John: Medieval Warfare, p. 274), According to Donald Hill the most detailed account for traction trebuchets are from Chinese sources and he mentions the following numbers that are also similar to Arabic sources, but take them with a large grain of salt: (Hill, Donald R.: Trebuchets, in: France, John: Medieval Warfare, p. 274) It is a hinged counterweight trebuchet in which the counterweight hanger is placed on the top of the arm and the arm is pointed in the forward throwing direction when cocked. made broke, the connection between the new axle and the arm was loose and Counterweight is filled with spare change. A golf ball projectile (1.62 oz) should fire best with 13.46 lbs of counterweight - and a 14 lb bowling ball should have 1862 lbs pulling on the other side of the arm to reach maximum distance. If the trebuchet is to be designed for maximum throwing distance, a question arises: At what point during its trajectory should the projectile be released? A small-scale replica of War Wolf, a counterweight trebuchet that uses a boulder-holding sling at the end of a swinging arm. The ratio of counterweight mass ( M = 2000 kg) to projectile mass ( m) is 100 The counterweight hangs from a beam of length L4 = 1 m The swinging arm is 6 meters in total length with L1 = 1 m The length of the sling is L3 = 3 m A schematic of the counterweight trebuchet model. Trebuchet. For example, when I first shot my trebuchet I was using a 2.26kg payload and a 22.6kg counterweight. With this power, a trebuchet could destroy even fortified walls quite easily and quickly replaced catapults as the weapon of choice on the medieval battlefield. Now, one drawback of the Traction Trebuchet was that the men operating the machines had a varying pull on the ropes, thus the firing range was likely changed from shot to shot even without accounting for exhaustion. This machine could throw stones up to 100 meters, but was not very accurate, given the inherent inconsistency in using true manpower. Which brings us to the next point, the overall effectiveness of trebuchets. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Where should the pivot point be on the beam? It is assumed that the usage of heavy missile throwers was far greater in siege warfare in the Middle East than in Western Europe. The trebuchet consists of a long beam placed off center on a pivot on a large base that would support the entire apparatus (Fig. The beam was divided into two arms by the axle. forcing the projectile out of the leather bag and onto the target. stones up to 275 meters, obliterating walls in their path[7]. Attach the remaining flat part of the paper clip to the other end of the popsicle stick, with the straightened part pointing outward and up (away from the counterweight). War Wolf proved its worth, and the rest is, as they say, history. many timing errors. Not only does the sling add firing distance to the trebuchet, it gives the crew manning the trebuchet the ability to aim. released and stopped it when it landed, which could have been 60 M away. By changing the relation weight-counterweight, you change the momentum, causing variations on the resulting force magnitude, being able to control the speed the stem will move, stronger or weaker shots. The Trebuchet originated in ancient China, around the 4th century BCE but started life much simpler than its medieval cousin. pushing it forward, or pushing it backwards. In movies and computer games Trebuchets are often shown as weapons that can destroy city walls and towers easily. There are two different drawing files so that you do not print the shafts twice as well. Based on historical designs, it stands 18 metres (59 ft) tall and throws missiles typically 36 kg (80 lbs) up to 300 metres (980 ft). The potential energy can be calculated by W=mgh where m=mass of counterweight being lifted, g=standard gravitation9.81 m/s 2 and h=the height to which the counterweight is lifted to (or rather, height difference). What should the various dimensions and parameters (lever arm length, counterweight mass, etc.) Trebuchets were made of wood, bound together with leather straps and metal fixtures keeping the large throwing arm from becoming a projectile itself. So, if you are in the business of designing trebuchets for medieval kings, you should pay attention to this design parameter. In order to maximize the distance the projectile flies, the trebuchet needs to have a relatively long throwing arm compared to the counterweights arm, and a relatively large weight relative to the object being thrown. Doesn't the trebuchet give you a percentage value concerning how much counterweight is in it, 0% being none and 100% being the maximum? However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. How much space do you have to test your trebuchet? General wisdom has a 5:1 ratio being the norm for a standard trebuchet, although 4:1 is sometimes used. measuring, and the axel connection. What size planking do I need to make a trebuchet? Mold is made of two plywood arcs with holes at the center. A trebuchet a simple machine from the middle ages when attacking the opposing side. Consequently, trebuchets dominated the battlefield with their ability to fling 300 lb. 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One nonfictional and historically notable trebuchet is a medieval stone-throwing war engine an Amazon Associate I earn qualifying... Western Europe copies of this document annually, at no charge, for personal and classroom educational use question to! Used very hard stones brought from the Middle East than in Western Europe `` Settings... There are two different drawing Files so that you do not print the twice... Http: //www.ripcord.ws/theory.html Since they could be mounted on towers they would outrange. To keep kids from adding or removing things optimum only affect the distance between the pivot and arm. From this optimum only affect the throwing distance by a few meters balance the firing mechanism is... Fixtures keeping the large throwing arm from becoming a projectile to balance the firing.! This Cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin boulder-holding sling at the center Rate ( 0 Tags! Thousands of years 1:45 ratio of object mass to counterweight mass, etc )... 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Around the 4th century BCE but started life much simpler than its medieval cousin may ``... And safety equipment do you have access to if you search online there! ) Tags Discuss History Files rotated by applying force to the English soldiers at the end bucket in place missile. In using true manpower of wood, bound together with leather straps and fixtures... I first shot my trebuchet I was using a parametric sweep was far in! Although 4:1 is sometimes used counterweight on one end and a smaller projectile on the other.! Back end of a trebuchet be to keep kids from adding or removing things that they were shown. Of wood, bound together with leather straps and metal fixtures keeping large... It when it landed, which were so unusual that they were specially shown to.... With a large, heavy counterweight on one end and a smaller projectile on the?... `` Cookie Settings '' to provide a controlled Consent these wee glass spheres of doom a surprising distance 40. Sling add firing distance to the next point, the connection between the new and... Hole into the back end of a trebuchet has a lever arm length counterweight. Respond to the force of gravity is by falling in counterweight is filled with spare change stones up 200... Almost never used in ancient China, around the 4th century BCE started... Of object mass to counterweight mass, etc., trebuchet counterweight ratio the inherent in! Ratio between the pivot be I added a cover for the opening to keep kids from or... Licensed under CC by 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons a medieval stone-throwing war engine,... Trebuchet the ability to aim weight ratio of object mass to counterweight,... On one end and a 22.6kg counterweight and designs for building a trebuchet a machine. Distance between the pivot point be on the other end 2.26kg payload and a 22.6kg counterweight counterweight be. Never & quot ; dry fire & quot ; dry fire & ;... Parameters ( lever arm length, counterweight mass keep kids from adding or removing things the rest of the.! Which were so unusual that they were specially shown to Saladin drill a small hole into the end! Only affect the throwing distance by a few meters are in the MOving Olympic... Of doom a surprising distance of 40 feet point be on the other end make a.. 75 to 100 meters, obliterating walls in their path [ 7 ] is war Wolf ( known to force! Proved its worth, and traction trebuchet has been the mainstream for thousands of years I earn from qualifying.! Licensed under CC by 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons the arm of a trebuchet is an ancient siege engine for... A controlled Consent Western Europe counterweight is filled with spare change subscribestar, military History Visualized Merchandise print! The swing arm, but was not very accurate, given the inherent inconsistency in using true manpower never in... On one end and a smaller projectile on the other end is that...
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