Giant Hybrid Torsion Catapult

Hybrid torsion catapult I made for a school project. Sorry about the wind noises but I can't really help that. This is one of the first shots we took, we were just guessing with the tension and angle of release. After some modifications I have it shooting close to 450 feet. Its a true thing of beauty. In this launch the melon went approximately 250 feet if I remember correctly.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Catapult
• Torsion
• Mangonel
• Roman Catapult
• Flying Fruit
• Giant Catapult

[Aragashia]

I kept thinking "For the love of, don't put your head above it!" D:

[AlphaGinger113]

@Aragashia If only you knew the injuries and accidents involved in the making of this catapult. When we first tested it with maximun torsion and more elastic bands it managed to flip itself over and destroyed my garage.

[Wargamer008]

What were the dimensions? L x W of base and the H of the arm and the length of the launching arm?

[AlphaGinger113]

@Wargamer008 if I remember correctly the length of the base was ~ 8 feet length, 4 feet in width, and the arm height was just over 9 feet

[Wargamer008]

@AlphaGinger113

Thanks. What was the total cost of this project? I am making my catapult for AP Physics and yours looked like the perfect one to model after.

[AlphaGinger113]

@Wargamer008 Its hard to pin down an exact cost because we had to go through quite a bit of trial and end and we ended up breaking things or switches stuff out. If i were to estimate i would say about ~$300 if you did it right the first time. If you buy a pre-made winch/crank and buy low quality rope it would be cheaper though.

[AlphaGinger113]

@ACDC5968 Wow really?... Sorry to piss on your campfire but it is in fact torsion, the latex tubing was used as a boost. And that is why I labeled this video as Giant Hybrid Torsion Catapult

[quadmasterXLII]

All that work and you couldn't be bothered to do enough work to put a (period accurate!) sling on the thing. You coulda been throwing a lot farther.

[blackittysamurai]

@AlphaGinger113 Wow, I never thought of that, I wonder if condoms would work, being designed to bear higher stress loads, not to mention being extra icky for those stuck up cheerleaders.

[AlphaGinger113]

@blackittysamurai we actually did try to shoot water balloons, but unfortunately the G forces are too high and the balloons explode during release. Perhaps if we looked into buying more durable balloons it would have worked.... but we were a bunch of poor high school kids lol

[blackittysamurai]

You should shoot water balloons at the cheerleaders.... revenge of the nerds!