Trebuchet

Well, physics coursework starts tomorrow... which will be fun... possibly. and I have decided that I am going to do various tests on a trebuchet that I have made especially for the purpose.

Its basically a big wooden sword on a stand with gym weights tied to the short end and a drill bit stuck in the other end to act as the sling hook. And the projectile: a tennis ball with holes cut into it for a bit of "type III paracord" tied through the holes to make the sling.

I have tried it a few times, and it generally worked quite well so I am happy about that, but quite what the teachers will think when they see it I don't know. Especially when you consider that someone wasn't allowed to use a junior low power recurve bow as a crossbow and only pulling it back to about 7N... instead, he had to use some rubber bands in a chain that actually puller exactly the same force and thus made it just as dangerous.

But we will just have to wait and see what happens.

I mean, a tennis ball on the end of a piece of string is hardly as dangerous as a fibreglass training arrow with no tip on it... is it??? And as far as I know, the range is only up to about 10m, in fact probably not even that.

But it should be fun trying to convince the teachers that a 70cm weighted swordy thing is less dangerous that the cross-band-bow.