Trebuchets

I could have sworn there was a 5 or 10 year old Scientific American issue that gave complete plans on how to build a Trebuchet. In trying to find it, I came across some other interesting stuff, namely a page at howthingswork.com and a set of plans for a portable working trebuchet. Also, if remember the story correctly, Ganderson's frat at MIT actually designed a trebuchet large enough to launch a pledge across the Charles from Back Bay onto campus but abandoned the plan when they discovered nobody in the house knew how to pack the parachute they had acquired.

Anyway, here are the links if anyone cares:

[www.howstuffworks.com]

This one throws 1 kg stones 100 meters...
[members.iinet.net.au]

This one will throw a 16 lbs bowling ball 135 yards...whoa
[www.ripcord.ws]

And yes, I did find the Scientific American article from 1995
[www.mazingo.net]

Pedantically yours,

John

One of the history of tech shows on TLC covered trebuchets and siege engines, as well. The attacking force used them to hurl sick animals over the besieged city's walls -- 13th century WMD.



Post Edited (07-08-03 11:27)

On Junkyard Wars they used them to hurl cabbages at paper castles.

Hey, speaking of mechanized competition, that reminds me... Last weekend in Padova I ran into a guy from Cornell Engineering's entry in the RoboCup, which is an international soccer tournament with teams of autonomous robots. (Autonomous from the humans; they're apparently all controlled by a central computer.) Several of the teams were staying in my hotel, judging from the t-shirts I saw at breakfast.

[robocup.mae.cornell.edu]

Cool stuff.

And, inevitably... [www.geocities.com]



Post Edited (07-09-03 13:37)

Is it necessary to designate your subject [OT] when the original topic is trebuchets?