Thomas Towey

6/7 STEM
12-8-16

Our goal for this project was create a catapult or trebuchet that went as far as
possible. Our restraints is that we had to build it and any part had to be one meter in
length or under. Our design is very simple we had an axel 35cm high and a 70 cm arm
on a 4:3 ratio. We used rubber bands for the force for our mass that went an astounding
39 meters. The experiment or modification was to test if a stopper to stop the arm would
affect the performance.
Clear Paragraph
When you are making a catapult or trebuchet you may want to to put a stopper so the arm won't
slam the ground every time. In doing so we thought the stopper would affect the distance our
projectile would fly. We found that the stopper did not alter how far the projectile goes. At the
angle -18 where the arm was stopped we recorded that the projectile went about 17 meters.
When the arm was stopped at 110 our projectile went about 15 meters. When the arm was
stopped at 134 it went around 22 meters. The evidence shows that the projectile flew to around
the same distance every time, concluding that a arm stopper won't affect the distance the
projectile flies.

We made the following other modifications to maximize the distance travelled by the projectile:
1. Weight of ball - we made the ball 7 grams in mass. We did this because research
showed that a ball of 7-10 grams travelled the furthest. We think this is because lighter
balls are more influenced by air resistance and thus slowed down, but heavier balls have
more inertia and are harder to put into motion. As a result, the 7 gram ball balances both

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factors to go the furthest.

Length of String - We made the length of the string 40 cm in a loop so when stretched
out, it was 20 cm long. We did this because
Number of Rubber bands - We used less rubber bands the second time around
because once we started to use more rubber bands our performance started to diminish.
We think this because the more pressure used on the rubber bands, the bands start to
lose strength.
Larger base- We made a larger base because sometimes the catapult flung forward and
the heavier base prevented that. We think this because the base weighs more so it won't
move as easily.
Length of Arm- we used a smaller arm because the bigger arm would have problems
when firing like hitting the ground. With the new arm it won't hit ground.

Calculations and statistics:

We launched our ball 39 meters, and it had a time in the air of 2.18 seconds. We got that its
maximum height was 17.32 feet. Its velocity was 46 miles per hour, with horizontal and vertical
components of 17.9 meters per second and 10.7 meters per second. When fully drawn back,
the rubber bands had 32.9 joules of potential energy, 1.7 of which were transferred to the
projectile. We launched our projectile at an angle of 30.8.