Trebuchets - Building and Testing (ME 380)

These trebuchet catapults were designed and built for ME 380 (Mechanical Design Workshop) at the University of Waterloo. Basically, the task was to design a device that could throw a 56g tennis ball down a hallway without hitting the ceiling. Every team was given a 4kg counterweight and was allowed to drop it a maximum distance of 35cm.

The minimum requirement was to throw the ball 8 meters. The remainder of the evaluation came from the performance index and precision of each trebuchet.

During the contest, each team was given 2 practice throws followed by 3 recorded throws. The performance index was calculated by dividing the maximum throwing distance squared, by the total mass of the Trebuchet (not including the plywood platform or counterweight). Precision was a calculation of how closely together the three recorded throws landed.

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Trebuchet
• Catapult
• ME
• 380
• ME380
• Mechanical
• Design
• Workshop
• Engineering
• Waterloo
• University
• of
• HJ
• Kwon
• E5