2008 Baseball catapult 150m launch

Physics honors project for Leland High School. The catapult had to fit within a 1 meter cube when loaded and launch a baseball as far as possible. Surgical tubing provided around 500 pounds of force. Ours went 150 meters setting the new school record, and has caused the school administration to add new restrictions to future catapult projects.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• leland
• catapult
• trebuchet
• 150m
• baseball

[KonaStinkyRid3R]

how did u crank it down to the catch? or did u pull it?

[krypekeeper]

@postman69 the surgical tubing store, duh

[postman69]

and where can u buy surgical tubing?

[postman69]

can u give me the plan for the trebuchet. i have a catapult project due soon and this looks like a good idea

[jproducts]

sweet yeah we ended up with 10 tubing loops but we had a hockey stick carbon fiber for the arm it couldnt handle 14 unless it had been our first few shots and wasnt worn out and we still ended up getting 135 so pretty sweet. and that is with a 55-60 degree launch angle at 45 would have been much better but ya i liked this project.

[fangeugene]

That's cool. I didn't make this, but my friend (bannanakin) did, and the main arm is 1/4 aluminum while the part where the tubing wraps around is 1"x2" solid aluminum tubing. The axle is 25/32" solid steel.

Also, after tweaking the launch angle, I think it goes further now.

[jproducts]

dude we have the same design and we didnt even copy this. Ours only has 6 tubing loops and goes about 100meters right now but our arm isnt strong enopugh for 14 loops or else we would be looking in the 200+ range.

[ferociousfrankie]

I recognized Nikhil??? At least I hope that's Nikhil! He knows me from Bowen, Sean!

[fangeugene]

my friend (bannankin - the guy who uploaded this vid.) has a small cnc mill and medium sized manual mill in his garage.

[ferociousfrankie]

Nice, whose machine shop was that? Lucky!