Log:

    October 23, 1999:
            Stephen and Maryam met at Maryam's house to discuss plans for a launching device.  We discussed two different ideas for a launching device.  They were a catapult and a slingshot.  We searched the web for some inspiration, but found none.  We spent a total of 2 on this day talking about and searching for ideas.
 

       October 24, 1999
            Stephen, while watching The Learning Channel the previous evening, saw a program about the use of a launching device called a trebuchet.  After Stephen gave Maryam a call to tell her of his discovery, we decided to call a group meeting that day.  Unfortunately, due to conflicting schedules the group was not able to meet at Stephen's house, so he decided to get a head start on the building of the project.

            Initially he did research via the internet for design plans for his newly found idea.  He successfully found an abundance of information, that helped us succeed in the building of our project. Next, he went out to purchase the supplies, which consisted of:

                    six 2x4's
                    1 box of three inch screws
                    1 1/8 inch dowel rod
                    4 mini pumpkins

                                                                    Total Price:  $25.46

        October 25, 1999
            The next morning at school the group discussed the time of their next meeting.  Unfortunately, due to a family emergency, Maryam would be unable to attend any meeting that would take place that day.  So Stephen began the building of the Trebuchet that evening.  There were no major complications during the building of the trebuchet, but the total time it took Stephen to build the trebuchet was 5 hours.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

        October 26, 1999
            Today Maryam and Stephen got together to test and perfect our Trebuchet.  The testing was long hard and frustrating.  Our original launches were very inconsistent, the longest being 7.6m and the shortest being 1.52m.  Our original release mechanism was just a simple sling hooked over the end of the lever.  We spent 3 1/2 hours trying to come up with a more consistent, accurate, and farther flying release mechanism.  We came up with none.

        October 27, 1999
            Last night Maryam and Stephen went home to think about how to build a more consistent release mechanism.  Stephen came back today with the idea of using a piece of wood with a "V" cut out of it.  The idea was that the pumpkin would be hanging by a string and at the end of the srting would be a screw which would slide into the "V".  As Stephen tested this new idea he realised that it was a much better and more consistant mechanism, but it was releasing the pimpkin to high.  So he decided to angle the "V" up more.  He did trials at different angles and came to the conclusion that the best angle for the "V" to be at was 25 degrees.  He then cut a wedge of wood at 25 degrees and screwed it underneath the "V" piece of wood.  Now the pumpkin was consistently going 10.1m.  That was the bare minimum so he decided to see what effect adding more weight would have on in.  It is about 8:00pm by now so we will go get more weight tomorrow.

      October 28, 1999
            Stephen and Maryam went to go get 50 lbs of weight.  When we came back we put on 65 lbs if weight and let it go.  13.8m right on targed!!!  We disassembled the Trebuchet, and loaded it into Stephen's car.

        October 29, 1999
            We got together as a class and launched.  We were .4m of the target.  All of Stephen and Maryam's hard work payed off.  Click here to see the video clip of the launch.  Click here to see the calculations of the speed of our pumpkin.

If you are intrested and want some more informarion on trebuchets here are some great sites:

The Gray Co.
The Trebuchet
The Trebuchet at NF/ Observatory
What On Earth Is A Trebuchet