Catapult
Zac Jordan, Ryan Breaux Catapult Project Sharkey
Catapults have been used since Greek and Roman times. They were used as siege engines against castles and walled cities. The ammunition loaded into the catapults were meant to break the walls with stones, fire incendiary missiles over the walls, or used for biological warfare, such as launching dead animals over the wall to spread disease. The type of catapult we built is a mangonel catapult. We like to call it RZYAACN (our names combined and it sounds cool). The catapult works through torsion, which is the tension caused when an object is twisted in one direction while the other end is motionless or twisted in the opposite direction, with equal and opposite torques at each end. Now to the construction of the catapult, we first had to decide which type we would build. We decided on the mangonel catapult because of its seemingly simple design, need for not too much materials, and awesomeness. We then went to the store Home Depot to buy our supplies. At Home Depot, we bought two 2x4’s (inches) which were eight feet and 12 feet long, and we had a Home Depot employee cut up for us into smaller lengths. He cut the wood up into two pieces that were 36 inches long, one piece that was 30 inches long, four piece that were 15 inches long, and one piece that was 18 inches long. We also bought one piece of square plywood that was half an inch thick, and had it cut from its original 24 inches by 24 inches size to 15 inches by 18 inches. We bought a 36 inch cylindrical piece of wood, which we sawed at the store into two pieces, 15 inches long each. Lastly, we bought 21 feet of nylon rope at the store, which was cut by one of the employees. We then drove back to the house, where the real construction began. We set up the base of the catapult with the two 36 inch piece of wood and two of the 15 inch pieces, setting them up in a rectangle. We used power drill, and used a drill bit to start the hole, and then drilled in three
Catapults have been used since Greek and Roman times. They were used as siege engines against castles and walled cities. The ammunition loaded into the catapults were meant to break the walls with stones, fire incendiary missiles over the walls, or used for biological warfare, such as launching dead animals over the wall to spread disease. The type of catapult we built is a mangonel catapult. We like to call it RZYAACN (our names combined and it sounds cool). The catapult works through torsion, which is the tension caused when an object is twisted in one direction while the other end is motionless or twisted in the opposite direction, with equal and opposite torques at each end. Now to the construction of the catapult, we first had to decide which type we would build. We decided on the mangonel catapult because of its seemingly simple design, need for not too much materials, and awesomeness. We then went to the store Home Depot to buy our supplies. At Home Depot, we bought two 2x4’s (inches) which were eight feet and 12 feet long, and we had a Home Depot employee cut up for us into smaller lengths. He cut the wood up into two pieces that were 36 inches long, one piece that was 30 inches long, four piece that were 15 inches long, and one piece that was 18 inches long. We also bought one piece of square plywood that was half an inch thick, and had it cut from its original 24 inches by 24 inches size to 15 inches by 18 inches. We bought a 36 inch cylindrical piece of wood, which we sawed at the store into two pieces, 15 inches long each. Lastly, we bought 21 feet of nylon rope at the store, which was cut by one of the employees. We then drove back to the house, where the real construction began. We set up the base of the catapult with the two 36 inch piece of wood and two of the 15 inch pieces, setting them up in a rectangle. We used power drill, and used a drill bit to start the hole, and then drilled in three