Used by castle commanders during times of peace to hurl roses to ladies during tournaments, trebuchets proved a deadly weapon in the field of ancient warfare. Flinging a wide variety of objects hundreds of yards, the trebuchet became the weapon of choice for laying siege to a castle. Its incredible range could often place it beyond the effectual defense range of the castle archers, thereby permitting the besiegers to destroy the defender's walls with little interference. During extended sieges, trebuchets were often used to hurl large quantities of dung, dead animals, and other such items to encourage disease throughout the besieged city.
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.
All in all, the Trebuchet was a fearsome weapon of mass destruction during the Middle Ages, a force to be reckoned with. Trebuchets only lost favor when cannons emerged, and the primary benefit of the cannon that the trebuchet lacked was not in fact power, but rather mobility. Smaller, more maneuverable cannons rapidly overran the position of the trebuchet in most armies across the world.
Warwolf, the legendary trebuchet built by the English Army to destroy Castle Urquhart, which was located in the Highlands of Scotland, on the shores of the also infamous Loch Ness. Par...
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...elease and a more horizontal trajectory, with higher velocity.
In an attempt to better understand the components of the trebuchet and to permit the viewer a better idea of the manner in which the firing of a trebuchet occurs, a trebuchet constructed entirely of K-nex was built this past week. The counterweight consisted of 5000 steel bb's wrapped in plastic and duct tape, while the sling itself was made of duct tape and twine. The remaineder of the trebuchet, including the throwing arm, were constructed purely from K-nex.
Standing some 3 feet tall, this trebuchet could repeatedly launch a 2-3oz object in excess of 20 feet.
Lengthening the sling proved valuable, increasing velocity and range considerably. However, a point was reached at which the sling length could be said to be optimized, and lengthening it further only created unpredictable release angles.
Earlier models just used a large weight on one end of a pivoting arm. The arm was pulled back the missile was placed and then let go.
For almost as long as civilizations began they have been fighting against each other. Often times these wars come down to who has the better military equipment. When one army creates an elite war machine another army is sure to soon copy or improve it. For example the U.S. Army Signal Corps purchased the first ever military aircraft in 1902 (Taylor). Two years later the Italians were also using aircrafts. The trebuchet catapult is no exception; it was one of the most destructive military machines of its time (Chevedden, 2000). A trebuchet works by using the energy of a falling counterweight to launch a projectile (Trebuchet). In this research paper I intend to explain the history and dynamics of a trebuchet catapult.
Lerner, Adrienne Wilmoth. “The Bow in Medieval Warfare.” Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 2: 700 to 1449. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 339-341. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
The Trebuchet was created by the Chinese in 300 BC and was known to be the most powerful of all the catapults. The Trebuchet was made of a long arm possibly up to 60 feet long, which balanced on a fulcrum, which was far from the center. A counterbalance, which is a heavy lead weight or a pivoting ballist box filled with earth, was attached to the short arm. A sling was attached to the end of the long arm and a rope was attached to the long arm, which was pulled down until the counterbalance reached its maximum height. The sling was loaded with projectiles as the rope was released and the counterbalance drops down. The potential energy is converted into kinetic energy and when the long arm is brought to an abrupt stop the projectile continue with the velocity produced by the kinetic energy
Soldiers in medieval Europe used a variety of weapons. A soldier's choice of armor depended on the time during which he lived, the type of fighting he did, and his economic situation. For hand-to-hand combat soldiers typically used swords, axes, clubs, and spears. Crossbows, bows, and javelins served as projectiles for most of the medieval period, though firearms had begun to appear toward the end of the era. Siege weapons such as catapults helped armies break into castles and towns. Many soldiers wore armor to protect them from opponents' weapons. This armor evolved from mail made of metal links to full plate armor as projectile weapons improved.
The Met museum said that the most popular used weapons were “spear, sword, axe, and the bow and arrow.” These weapons and tactics of fighting then became the backbone of weapons today, such as guns. Spears, bows and arrows allow knights to fight from a distance, such as hand grenades and guns used in today’s military.
...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 battering ram was one of the most famous of the medieval weapons. The battering ram ram was known for being used in vikings raidings and during the middle ages. Its simplest form was basically just a long log carried by several people. The battering ram was made out of tree trunks, particularly oak ash and fir were used, and a metal head. It was used to literally pound, batter, punch and brake down gates, doors, walls of medieval castles and towns. It proved to an effective weapon because old fashioned wall building materials were such as stone and brick were weak in tension. With several blows, the cracks would grow and eventually turn into a hole. Later in the middle ages the introduction to cannons had made the usage of battering rams
The mangonel, somehow, had some design flaw in that is called for a wooden barrier to be a concept. It is place in catapult history is nonetheless well documented as this model was still used when the trebuchet arrived on the scene. Unlike it is earlier Greek brother. The mongonel is counted as a easier design in history of catapult.
What exactly is a catapult and what were they used for? "A catapult is a mechanical device that is kind of a bigger version of the slingshot" (Stephen Rampur, 2011) The dictionary definition of a catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a long distance without the help from explosive devices. This means that people would arm the catapult with various non-explosive articles such as rocks or logs, or anything that people found. In medieval times, people used catapults primarily in warfare. The soldiers would fire various objects over the castle walls to attack and harm the enemies. This was a very effective way in which to harm the enemies because it was quiet and they would not know when it was coming.
During the Revolutionary War, the Artillery assets that were available were a combination of cannons, mortars and howitzers. There were two types of cannons used at this time. The Field Guns, which were lightweight and easier to move, and the Siege Guns, which were much heavier and less mobile. The cannons utilized three different types of rounds. The rounds were solid shot, grapeshot, and canister. The solid shot rounds were used for structures, buildings, and ships. The grapeshot, which was a canvas bag of lead or iron balls, was ideal for long range personnel. 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 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. By the time of the Revolutionary War there were nine types of land service mortar and four types of sea service mortar. They ranged from 4.4 to 13 inches. The rounds fired out of mortars were designed to fire at a high trajecto...
Ballistae were the first form of artillery. They looked like a modern cross bow. They hurled large piece of wood
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.
The most commonly used weapons in ancient weapons as siege engines were battering rams, catapults, and assault ladders. Battering rams were most commonly used because of their protection that they allowed to hide behind and also because of their use in taking down a castle wall (Siege Engines). Assault ladders were ladders that were used to scale the walls of the castle so that they could enter into the castle. A huge disadvantage was the enemy could push the ladders away and the enemy would shoot arrows at them as they were trying to enter. The advantages of the catapult ended up overpowering the advantages of other siege weapons. Some of these advantages included being able to shoot a projectile from long distances, a large amount of damage, and relatively unskilled laborers to operate a machine. The bulk amount of people affiliated with catapults only helped to move and wind up the machine. There was a soldier in charge of positioning and how far back the catapult should be in relation to the castle. Most catapults launched large rocks, arrows, diseased cows, and explosives as the century went on. During Medieval ages castles starte...
In this assessment of the projectile motion of an object, I found that it can be applied to many useful situations in our daily lives. There are many different equations and theorems to apply to an object in motion to either find the path of motion, the displacement, velocity, acceleration, and time of the object in the air.