Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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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