Catapults Research Paper

Catapults were once used to launch furious bees and poisonous snakes onto their enemies. Catapults have influenced history and even the modern ideas of this world. Catapults were an extremely important advancement in technology, had many different purposes, and were very simple. Catapults were also very important in war. Catapults where a very important advancement in technology. One of the reasons that catapults were such a large jump in technology is because of the principle of stored energy. Stored energy is used in a catapult through a torsion cord. A torsion cord is a thick rope that is tightly twisted. The energy is released when the rope unwinds (Alchin, 2014). Catapults revolutionised the way war worked because they

The bigger the catapult, the further it throws. So we can assume that it would be the best catapult. But that is incorrect. Larger catapults take a long time time to be adjusted to fire at the right distances, so smaller catapults, whose range is made for shorter distances, would be more adequate in that specific situation (Gurstelle, 2004). Catapults can break down or damage walls protecting cities or castles. They have even been used to hurl corpses or fire into the innermost part of the cities walls. Either way, it is an effective way to siege a castle (About.com, 2014). A ballista is a massive crossbow mounted on a wooden frame. They fired tremendous ironclad darts, or arrows (Alchin, 2014). Ballistea is the plural form of ballista. For power, they used a bow instead of a torsion cord or gravity as propulsion for their

Torsion cords were large cords twisted as much as one could. They were placed at the bottom of the frame near the front. A wooden beam is then inserted into the middle of the cord. This beam is then is then adjusted to the correct angle it is fired at and cranked backwards. It is then secured, usually by a rope, until it is ready to fire. A wooden beam is also placed into the top of the frame where the arm will be stopped at. The arm is then loaded with some kind of ammunition and then released. As a consequence, the torsion cord unwinds at an exceedingly fast rate and swings the arm forward with it. When the arm hits the beam at the top, it jars to a stop, the force is then carried to the ammo and it sails forward. The arm is then winched back and the process is repeated (Gurstelle, 2004). Ballistea use a large bow to launch their darts or arrows at their enemies. Trebuchets, on the other hand, use gravity to pull massive counterweights down to swing the arm into a forward motion propelling the armament (O’Bryan, 2013). Catapults, though simple, had a devastating effect in a