A trebuchet is a type of catapult, which is a common type of medieval weapon that uses a swinging arm to throw some sort of projectile. Trebuchets first appeared in Ancient China during the 4th century BC as a long attack weapon. It spread west and was adopted by the Byzantines in the mid 6th century AD. It uses manpower to swing the arm to launch a projectile. The later counterweight trebuchet, also known as the counterpoise trebuchet, uses a counterweight to swing the arm. It appeared in both Christian and Muslim areas around the Mediterranean in the 12th century, and made its way back to China from Mongols in the 13th century. The trebuchet is a compound machine that uses the mechanical advantage of a lever to throw a projectile. They are typically large constructions made mainly of wood, reinforced with metal, leather, rope, and other materials. They are usually not able to be moved and must be assembled on-site. …show more content…
A sling is attached to one end of the beam to hold the projectile. The projectile is thrown when the beam is quickly rotated by applying force to the opposite side of the beam. The mechanical advantage is primarily obtained by having the projectile at the side of the beam much longer than the opposite side where the force is applied. A trebuchet projectile can be almost anything such as debris, corpses, animals, metal, stones and other things, but normally a large or dense stone, or even round, smooth metal. These give the best range and predictability or accuracy. When attempting to overcome enemy walls, it is important to use materials that will not shatter on
CATAPULTS The catapult, was invented by the Romans, and plays a large role in the siege of any castle. Besiegers could fire 100-200 pound stones up to 1,000 feet. The catapult was used to destroy buildings and walls inside and outside of the castle walls, it could also destroy an enemies moral by throwing severed heads of comrades, they could spread disease by throwing shit and dead animals in, and they could destroy wooden building by throwing bundles of fire in.
According to Chevedden et al., (2002) the Latin word for trebuchet was “ingenium” and those who designed, made and used them were called inginators. These early engineers kept modifying the trebuchet to increase the range and impact force. One of the improvements engineers made was varying the length of the sling ropes so the shot left the machine at a ? angle of 45 degrees to the vertical (shown in the figure above), which produces the longest trajectory (Chevedden et al.,
Trebuchets earned a reputation for being much more accurate and precise than their onager and catapult counterparts. Not only was this accuracy a benefit, but being based on rotational motion and leverage rather than torsion (spring power) and lacking in a throwing arm stop, the trebuchet proved a much safer alternative for the personnel operating it. Onagers and Mangonels would literally explode on occasion when the torsion proved too great or a crack developed in the throwing arm due to the rapid stops it experienced.
Although many think of trebuchets and catapults as two different things, trebuchets are actually a type of catapult. While a standard catapult is any device that will throw an object by means of tension, a trebuchet throws and object by means of gravity from a counterweight that will fling an object by means of stored up energy, which is known as potential energy. Modern trebuchets usually use metal weights or sandbags as the counterweight, but, medieval armies would use anything from bags of stone to crates of animals. When the trebuchet was first used in ancient China during the fourth century, it was highly preferred over the standard catapult. When trebuchets were first becoming popular, armies and army leaders were gravitated towards them, because of their design. It was easier to get a more accurate measurement of the landing point of the ammunition. A trebuchet can throw an object by using a counterweight on the
Question 5: “Texts construct characters who represent the best qualities in human nature, as well as those who represent the worst.” Discuss how at least ONE character is constructed in a text you have read or viewed. (Sem 2, 2016)
The image indicates that the man on the bottom has forgotten about the trebuchet and is more focused on the cannons abilities because of the gunpowders tactics. Since the cannon is increasingly more compelling than the trebuchet, men in the Middle Age started to transition to gunpowder- based technology knowing that gunpowder was more effective and powerful. The image could also be seen as soldiers thinking that cannons are more of a effective weapon since it’s chosen over the trebuchet. Gunpowder was the primary propellant in cannons by making the cannon fire the iron/steel ball to its enemies. It drove the ball upward causing a smokey effect resulting in a large sound from the kinetic energy towards the heavy ball. By 1350, cannons and other gunpowder based weapons were regularly used in the English and French armies. Therefore, the transition from medieval artillery to modern artillery truly impacted the fighting style in Europe. Gunpowder gave warfare a fresh start to create powerful weapons that ultimately made Europe and many more places stronger in the long run. In the end, there was now a quicker way to defeat an entire army more sufficiently and
Crossbows can vary a lot in design and construction. They range from 50 to 400 lbs. in draw weight. They can be very small hand held pistols or rifles, which can fire rapidly and accurately with pinpoint accuracy up to 60 yards and kill ranges up to 100 yards. The larger bows with 400lb. draw weights could have ranges of over 400 yards they could fire large arrows, rocks and other types of projectiles accurately while staying well out of range of most enemy fire. These bows were built of large beams and sat on wheels so that 2 men could change the position of the bow easily. These bows were very powerful but were also very slow in loading and firing. They had mechanical winches, which were hand cranked to draw the bowstring back. It took two men to run these bows called siege machines.
...e went into motion. Possible projectiles of the trebuchet were living prisoners, jugs of Greek fire, rocks, and animals. Another large weapon of siege was used primarily in storms, the battering ram. In its early stages, the ram was no more than a hefty beam with a mass of metal attached to the end. Men would hoist the cumbersome boom onto their shoulders and run into a wall or door as many times as needed until the surface under attack gave way. In the Middle Ages, it was developed into more of a machine, for the ram hung from the center of a tent under which the men operating the ram could hide. The ram could be swung like a pendulum much more easily than having to constantly run back and forth. Also, castle guards often poured hot oil or other things onto the ram and its engineers. The tent, which was on wheels, protected the men and the battering ram as well.
The trebuchet is used with a long wooden arm refreshed on a hinge point, which acted as a big level. A bullet was placed on one end and soldiers in this earlier form of the trebuchet pushed on slings devoted to the other end to fundamentals swing the arm around and throw the
Mortars have a very pronounced arc of flight. They have a relatively low muzzle velocity and are unsuitable for direct fire. Their principle value comes from being able to lob shells behind an obstacle such as a fort or a hill. Unlike modern mortars, those used during the Civil War were bulky devises and mounted at a fixed angle usually between 45 and 50 degrees. They were not very accurate and depended solel...
The canister shot was a wooden cartridge carrying iron balls and when fired would explode like a shotgun for shorter range personnel. The cannons were mostly low trajectory as opposed to the mortars which were high trajectory and fire bomb shells. The mortar was based on a wooden platform and a wedge of wood was used to incline the front of the barrel. There were land service mortars and sea service mortars. The land service being more mobile and the sea service much heavier and were permanently positioned on ships.
Before continuing much further, there are a few terms that need to be defined. First and foremost are the two main forces that act upon the boomerang, tension and compression. Tension is the force acting upon the side of the boomilever that is being “pulled” away from the wall, or the top side. On the other end of the spectrum is compression, which is the force acting on the side of the boomilever being pushed toward the wall, or the bottom of the device. Generally, compression is the main concern in building.
The earliest model was the trebuchet. It started by using a large weight on one end of a pivoting arm. The arm was pulled back the missile was placed and then let go. The weight went down, the arm went, and the missile launched. The later model gained its power from a tightly wound skein of rope, hair, and skin. the skeins were twisted incredibly tight and then had a wooden arm up to sixty feet long placed in between them. The arm was pulled back using pulleys and rope, the missile was placed in the wood cup and then the arm was released. The arm sprang to a 90 degree angle where it was stopped by a large padded piece of wood. The arm was then brought back down and fired again.
First the energy of conservation. The setting of the trebuchet before firing is shown in Fig 1. A heavy counterweight of mass (M) (contained in a large bucket) on the end of the short arm of a sturdy beam was raised to some height while a smaller mass (m) (the projectile), was positioned on the end of the longer arm near or on the ground. In practice the projectile was usually placed in a leather sling attached to the end of the longer arm. However for simplicity, we shall ignore the sling and compensate for this omission by increasing the assumed length of the beam on the projectile’s side. The counterweight was then allowed to fall so that the longer arm swung upward, the sling following, and the projectile was ultimately thrown from its container at some point near the top of the arc. The far end of the sling was attached to the arm by a rope in such a way that the release occurred at a launching angle near the optimum value ( most likely by repeated trials) for the launch height. The launching position is shown in fig.2 where we have assumed that the projectile is released at the moment the entire beam is vertical. In the figures: (a)=height of the pivot, (b)= length of the short arm, (c)= length of the long arm, while (v) and (V) are the velocities of (m) and (M), respectively, at the moment of launching.
Useful for the military, projectile motion can now be used for a number of weapons; which is when an object (like a bullet or cannon) is thrown-projected- and mov...