A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages either to smash walls or to throw projectiles over them. It is sometimes called a “counterweight trebuchet.”
The trebuchet appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the twelfth century. It could throw 140 kg projectiles at high speeds into enemy forts. On some occasions, disease-infected corpses were flung into cities in an attempt to infect the people under siege (a medieval variant of biological warfare). Trebuchets appeared in China in about the 4th century BC and in Europe in the 6th century CE, and did not become out dated until the 16th century, well after the introduction of gunpowder. Trebuchets were far more accurate than other medieval catapults.
A trebuchet works by using the mechanical principle of leverage to propel a projectile much farther and more accurately than a catapult. The sling and the arm swing up to the vertical position, one end of the sling releases, propelling the projectile towards the target with great force. Much advancement has been made upon the trebuchet. Scientists are still in argument over whether the ancients used wheels to absorb some of the excess power and put it back into the projectile. It is known that troughs rotated in either direction for aiming and used for the projectile to slide along, Therefore increasing the accuracy.
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Gravity pulls the heavy counterweight down towards the ground. Because the counterweight is attached to the throwing arm on one side of the axle, the projectile side of the throwing arm is pulled upwards. The rate of movement on the right hand side is faster than the left hand side, due to the lever physics. The sling carrying the projectile is carried forwards by the lifting arm.
How Newton’s laws affect a Trebuchet
1) Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
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