Tre Bartony

November 11, 2015

Period 6
Projectile Motion: Catapults
Introduction
For this project, the general objective was to fire a marshmallow a distance of five meters
away with a type of catapult. Catapults have been used mainly in the Middle Ages, and under the
Greek and Roman empires. They consisted of tension being place on an arm of a catapult while
the projectile was loaded into a bucket on that arm. When the tension became force that swung
the arm of the catapult up and forward. The projectile in the air would get launched in the air at
an angle, and over a period of time, it would come down by the force of gravity to hit its target.
For my design, I used a rubber band stretched around a picture frame to create tension on the
catapult. The reason why I did this was that I was hoping that the rubber band would have the
elasticity in order to create enough force on the arm in order to launch the projectile the
necessary distance. Elasticity isnt the only concept of a catapult though. A catapult uses
kinematic equations in order to predict who far the projectile will fly and for how long it will fly.
It uses the force of gravity and its acceleration to predict how the projectile will fly.
Materials

Rubber band
Spoon and cylinder of wood (arm of the catapult)
A picture frame
Wood base
Wood perpendicular to the base (to hold the picture frame at an angle)
Wood glue

Duct tape
Brackets (to hold the axis connected to the fulcrum to the picture frame
Brackets (to hold the hold the picture frame to the base)

Data Analysis

Distance
3.3 m
3.5 m
3.4 m

Time
.4 s
.5 s
.45s

Vx0
8.25m/s
7m/s
7.55m/s

Vy0
1.96m/s
2.45m/s
2.205m/s

V0
8.47962853m/s
7.416367035m/s
7.865400498

The average velocity of the projectile was about 8 m/s. The way you would determine the
initial velocity of the projectile would be determine through finding the initial velocity in the
horizontal direction, then finding the initial velocity in the vertical direction, then using the
Pythagorean theorem to get the overall initial velocity. You use the equation d/t for the Vx0,
then you use the first kinematic equation to find Vy0.
Conclusion
Overall, the project worked very well. It flew the marshmallow in the general vicinity of
where it was supposed to go. The main problem though was human error. I was the one to pull
the arm back against the rubber band in order to launch the marshmallow, but every time I pulled
the arm back, I didnt pull it far enough causing the marshmallow to go too short every time. I
learned how important it is to make sure you land something in the right spot, and I learned a lot
of new variables in how a projectile is affected. Since I play golf, Im going to us golf as one of
my examples. To do the best, a player needs to land the ball in a very precise spot on the ground.
The factors that can affect this besides the golfers swing are gravity, air resistance, the velocity

the ball starts with, and the time of how long it is in air. Another example can be a cannon, firing
a gun, shooting a crossbow, etc. The projectile is affected by all the variables out there and a
person needs to take these into account if they are going to hit his or her target.