trebuchet counterweight ratio
This counterweight was affixed to the end of the shorter arm and, without the need for ropes and people to pull the machine, space was available for lengthening the sling, which allowed the projectile to go even farther [3]. This happens when one end of the sling slips off the tip of the swinging arm. There are basically two types of trebuchets, the traction trebuchet, which was operated by men pulling ropes and the counterweight trebuchet, which provided the necessary force by using a counterweight. A trebuchet is a machine where making a change in any one area has an effect on the final result: the fling. The weight of the counterweight must be much greater than 10 times. Youll need to cut 8 pieces: Two long base pieces. By stlfinder.com. The addition of a fixed counterweight was a major advancement in trebuchet technology. 2020 by History University. In order to maximize the distance the projectile flies, the trebuchet needs to have a relatively long throwing arm compared to the counterweights arm, and a relatively large weight relative to the object being thrown. Some knowledge of physics will be helpful when doing this project. The counter-weight is usually much heavier than the projectile, typically by a ratio of 10 to 1 or more. A trebuchet is a type of catapult that uses a counterweight to engage the armwhich is attached to a slingand launch projectiles. CW stands for counterweight, and the release . Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. How high off the ground should the pivot be? 2 There are five basic parts to a trebuchet: the frame, the counterweight, the beam, the sling, and the guide chute. Which is correct everyone do or everyone does? How much weight can a trebuchet hold? Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity An Illustrated History Internet: http://authors.historyforum.com/liang_jieming/chinesesiegewarfare>. 2 How long should the arm of a trebuchet be? This created an increase in falling distance and centrifugal force, both of which contributed to greater power. It has many of the advantages of a floating arm trebuchet, but with fewer parts, less friction, and a unique projectile launch path. From what we know it seems that counter-weight trebuchets were used with heavier missiles. Other articles where trebuchet is discussed: catapult: An exception was the medieval trebuchet, powered by gravity. Mc=30, Mp=0.5, Sa= -46, and Lc=0.321 or 0.5. Uninterrupted action by massed forces of large machines would surely have smashed masonry in time, but the conditions in which large numbers of such machines could be gathered and operated were relatively rare, and before the end of the twelfth century there is little evidence of artillery smashing the main masses of castles and walled cities. (France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, p. 120), Another aspect in attacking walls was, that the quality of the stones was very important, because if the stone shatters on the wall, the damage is quite limited. The ballista was a type of large crossbow that worked very much like a bow, using the tension created by pulling back a string or rope along with a trigger mechanism to fire spear-like ammunition [2]. While designers of the Middle Ages had to rely largely on intuition or trial and error to build their trebuchets, modern builders have many helpful tools available. A heavy counterweight hangs on the short end of the beam. In this blog post, we will build a simplified model of a counterweight trebuchet using the Multibody Dynamics Module and examine some of its design features. One can expect that only a limited number of these special stones were available and used. The range of a trebuchet has always been important. Three parts. - user21033 Mar 24, 2013 at 16:03 Add a comment 0 Hill states about the Counterweight Trebuchet: measuring, and the axel connection. The counterweight is cast concrete, 8 inches wide, 15 inch radius from the pivot hole to the curve of the concrete, 108 pounds total. Now, lets look at the range, there are no proper accounts according to Hill, but he assumes that 275 m (900 ft) should be correct. In 1304, on one of his campaigns to defeat Scotland, King Edward I besieged Stirling Castle and ordered his engineers to build a giant trebuchet. There are many different approaches to building a trebuchet, and you can find many different guides and designs online and in books (see the Bibliography for one example). https://youtu.be/5RZazivVX7k Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. another potential negative for the trebuchet is its immovability. Some of these references contain advanced math, including calculus and differential equations, but you can still use them to help you get started. With this power, a trebuchet could destroy even fortified walls quite easily and quickly replaced catapults as the weapon of choice on the medieval battlefield. Defenders used trebuchets against siege towers and the enemy artillery, thus providing what we would call counter-battery fire nowadays. To further analyse this phenomenon I have created another graph that keeps a constant counterweight mass and but changes the ratio. Ideally a ratio of around 100/1 ballast to projectile weight should be used, this results in . https://youtu.be/Hb05YVnp0Tw. One of the last recoded uses being in 1521 at siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitln by the Conquistador Hernn Corts, where gunpowder was extremely limited which forced the Spanish forces to use more 'primitive' techniques. . Large trebuchets of this type would typically feature a counterweight roughly ten times the weight of the projectile, which would put War Wolfs counterweight in the neighborhood of 1.5 tons! (Hill, Donald R.: Trebuchets, in: France, John: Medieval Warfare, p. 274; France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, p. 119) Whereas the traction trebuchet had the force only applied for a short amount of time. They work great over a huge range of mass ratios. Mold is made of two plywood arcs with holes at the center. Thanks. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. All weapons have their pros and cons with the trebuchet having its fair share of both. released and stopped it when it landed, which could have been 60 M away. Edward I of England, who had spent months battering the walls of the castle with massive stone and lead projectiles, was becoming sick of the siege going nowhere. If you want to do hand calculations to design a trebuchet with the best range, you will need to understand the physics involved. and a hose clamp to hold the counterweight on. 1 The purpose of this paper is to explain the basic functions of a trebuchet, explain subsystems of the trebuchet, and give examples of a few possible modifications to the subsystems. listed if standards is not an option). Finally, watch your trebuchet go. What are the advantages of a floating arm trebuchet? Ether way the trebuchet became an essential part of a medieval sieges, and turning up without one was like forgetting to put your trousers on in the morning! In use for almost 1000 years, the medieval version of the Chinese trebuchet transformed the battlefield thus changing the world forever. One of the final improvements to reach the trebuchet was the propped counterweight [3]. What is the best ratio for a trebuchet? We tried 100x Ironstone ore (10.00 "weight") and Heavy Armor, but none of it seemed to work better. https://www.thingiverse.com/xbxbxb123/designs, For the Trebuchet, I work on the counterweight and the fire arm. We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. The quantity s is shown along the projectile trajectory, and it represents the throwing distance that would follow from releasing the projectile at a certain point on this trajectory. (France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, p. 124), Note that trebuchets were not only used in the offense, quite on the contrary, there were also used effectively by defenders. Related. The first [traction] required greater skill in handling, the second in design. (Hill, Donald R.: Trebuchets, in: France, John: Medieval Warfare, p. 279) with European battles from England to the balkans. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. I have a basic understanding that the more weight you put in the counterweught item slots, the further the shot will go. Figure 3, below, shows a sketch that can help you start thinking about how to set up the problem, and the variables involved. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3627759. you can make your own counterweight (i used old 1.25 lb plates) the peg for the counterweight is just under 1.1 in. Some medieval trebuchets had beams of up to 10 meters and could throw stones of 100 kg as far as 300 meters [1]. Furthermore, Hill assumes that light trebuchets were used to throw missiles into the city, whereas the heavy trebuchets were used for attacking the walls. The counterweight trebuchet appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the 12th century. Sling The sling is attached to the long end of the swing arm lever and holds the projectile that is to be thrown. The longer the ratio, the greater the speed that tip of the throwing arm will reach but also increasing the force required to move it quickly. It is sometimes called a counterweight trebuchet or counterpoise trebuchet, to distinguish it from an earlier weapon called the traction trebuchet, which employed pulling men working the mechanism. Our design was very stout and held around 720lbs in counterweight, not including the weight bar and arm itself. Feed some string through the hole and tie the bucket in place. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The traction Trebuchet or Mangonel, which was adopted by the Byzantine empire some 100 years after their first recoded use in China, relying on man power to pull ropes and weights to thrown the projectile via the long swinging arm, a very time consuming and some what . - Algorithms of a trebuchet, http://www.legionxxiv.org/trebuchetpage/ The arm then jerks forward and releases the projectile from the sling. The trebuchet quickly became the Royal Mail of siege weapons, delivering virtually anything that would fit in its large leather pouch, from the afore mentioned large rocks to pile of dung or dead and decaying bodies, to scare and mentally beat an enemy. Many teachers also use trebuchets to teach the fundamentals of physics to their students, and hobbyists build huge devices to enter in competitions that require the trebuchets to launch a wide variety of objects including pumpkins, pianos, cars, coffins, and even the builders themselves [8]! When the beam is quickly rotated by applying force to the opposite end of . Actual hand-to-hand combat was quite rare and usually only occurred during midnight counterattacks by the besieged or when the walls of the city were finally breached. With Just a trebuchet frame and swing arm ready to print. Another error that could have occurred was the axle Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Edward called upon his master castle builder, James of St. George to oversee to construction of a massive trebuchet that would be able to hurl 300 pound projectiles at the walls. Military History Visualized Offical Homepage for the YouTube Channel. [11] Ripcords Trebuchet Stuff. It . A powerful catapult had the capability to launch a 27-kilogram stone, but had little effect on walls or fortified buildings located over 160 meters away [3]. Or something in between? Before the addition of the sling, the crew had to move the entire trebuchet to change the direction of the trajectory. Press the backs of your hands against the inside of a door frame for 30 secondsas if youre trying to widen the frameand then let your arms down; youll feel something odd. One is the frame, one is the swing arm, and one is the set of moving parts. In this blog post, we demonstrated that the Multibody Dynamics Module can be used to build a simple model of a counterweight trebuchet. Using a parametric sweep, you could easily examine the effect of changing other physical lengths in the model (while keeping the counterweight at fixed height for consistency). For any other use, please contact Science Buddies. Trebuchets have appeared in several films and TV shows, such as The Return of the King (2003); Marco Polo (20142016); and even in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), where a cow was catapulted from inside the castle walls toward an unsuspecting King Arthur! France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300, Contamine, Philippe: War in the Middle Ages, Ohler, Nobert: Krieg & Frieden im Mittelalter, McCotter, Stephen: Byzantines, Avars and the Introduction of the Trebuchet. Scrohammer happily hurls these wee glass spheres of doom a surprising distance of 40 feet. For an outdoor trebuchet, you can use 2 x 4-inch (5 x 10 cm) planking. The longer arm length makes the projectile go further because being longer, it multiplies the mechanical force of the counter weight dropping a longer distance, the average was 3.2 meters, then a shorter arm, the average was 2.8 meters.