Trebuchets in the Tinker Room

I would like to tell you about something we did in the Tinker Room this term. That something in particular is making a device called a trebuchet. A trebuchet is a device much like a catapult with the main difference being that instead of using a bucket to launch things, it uses a giant sling… Well at least real ones do. In the Tinker Room this term, the students learned how a trebuchet works and how and what it was used for in the past. The reason that the trebuchet was used instead of the catapult was because it could launch things up to three times as far. The reason that the trebuchet was so efficient was because the string of the sling used centrifugal force to launch instead of just relying on the pull of gravity on the weight on the other side of the beam. Nowadays trebuchets are used mostly for historical reenactments, launching pumpkins, and engineering competitions like mine. Next term I am hoping to have all of the classes work together on a single project while still being separated by different time periods. The project I want them to work on is a fully cardboard Adirondack chair that is functional and looks nice (yes even despite being made of cardboard tubes). Hopefully it turns out nice and works well with cardboard alone, but if not, I’ll reinforce it with wood so that I won’t waste material. I have no doubt that they will be able to pull this off. Also I will be having them make their own custom kites so that on some nice day in the future they can fly them and see whose turned out best.